


Dance, Fucker, Dance

by Mercy_Rhyne



Series: Dance, Fucker, Dance [1]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Criminals, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Attempted Murder, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders Are Twins, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Gangs, He does some things, He's the only pure character in this godforsaken fic, I mean Virgil is close but not quite, M/M, Morally Grey Janus Sanders, Morally Grey Remus Sanders, Murder, Soft Morality | Patton Sanders, Torture, Villain Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Violence, virgil is so tired
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:20:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 33
Words: 81,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25938805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mercy_Rhyne/pseuds/Mercy_Rhyne
Summary: For six years, Remus Silver, better known as Crocodile, has been one of the city's biggest nightmares. As the number one assassin of his brother's organisation, he made quite the reputation for himself. But everything changes when the siblings have a falling out.Now Remus has to team up with the city's greatest hero to take out his brother. Can they put aside their differences and get to the man known as Caesar before he gets to them?
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Sleep | Remy Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders & Deceit | Janus Sanders, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders
Series: Dance, Fucker, Dance [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1882543
Comments: 45
Kudos: 55
Collections: Storytime! 2020





	1. In The Hall of the Mountain King

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Arguing, fighting, attempted murder

“Knock knock,” Remus called out mockingly as he stepped into Roman’s office. “You asked for me, your highness?”

Roman looked up from the notebook on his desk, eyeing his twin with annoyance. After decades of living and working together with this guy, he still couldn’t stand his antics. If anything, he seemed to grow more annoying with age. But he was a good man to have around. Skilled. So he’d keep him around at least for now. 

“You’re back early,” he stated, closing the notebook and pushing it aside as he folded his arms on his desk. “Did you finish the job?”

“It was surprisingly easy,” Remus said with a satisfied grin. “Guy was all by himself. Didn’t suspect a thing.”

Roman gave a simple nod, wasting no more energy to acknowledge his brother’s comment. “Good,” he said. “I’ve got something else for you.” He grabbed a folder from his desk, handing it to Remus. “I want you to keep an eye on them. Let me know if they do anything out of place. Word has it they’ve got a double agenda.”

Remus took the file, opening it to skim over the information, his eyes lingering on the picture attached to the bottom. It was a picture of a young person, in their early twenties. Remus knew them. A member of the Red Gang, one of the gangs Roman had… control over. They were a good person. Eager. Definitely no double agenda. Remus would know. He was good at reading people. As always, it was just Roman being paranoid.

“Seems like a job for Deceit,” he commented, raising an eyebrow as he closed the folder. “Have you asked him?”

Roman shook his head. “I want it to be stealthy. Unnoticed. I just need you to follow him around for a bit, see what he’s up to. I don’t want a lie detector test.”

"Look," Remus sighed, trying to do the impossible and reason with his brother. "I know Perris. He's clean. Wouldn't dare to go the wrong way."

"Word says he did," Roman shrugged. "We can't risk it. You check him out."

"Word can be wrong," the other retorted. This was getting ridiculous. Remus didn't know all the Red Gang members, but he knew them better than Roman did, and this guy was on their side, one hundred percent. He just  _ knew _ it.

"Last time I checked,  _ I _ was the one giving orders," Roman said with a slight hiss, glaring at his twin. "It is not  _ your _ place to decide what to do. I tell you check out the kid, you check out the kid. What's so hard about that?"

"I'm just saying it’s a waste of time. We could spend our time much more efficiently, Roman."

"That's Caesar to you,  _ Crocodile _ ," Roman said simply, completely ignoring his brother's comment. "It’s not that difficult. Check out the kid. Report back when you have information."

He already turned back to the notebook he'd shoved aside earlier, but Remus wouldn't let himself be dismissed so easily. Treatment like this was just… disrespectful. He was worth more than something like that; he was worth  _ so _ much more. 

He was starting to get sick of his brother’s behaviour. It was something that had started ages ago. Back when they were teens. When they were kids, Roman was actually a perfectly sweet guy. Standing up for the bullied kids, threatening to fight anyone who was mean to someone else. But somehow… something changed him. He grew up and something in him died. Became bitter. Back when they were young, when they were  _ close _ , and seeing this development had hurt Remus. He actually used to love his brother before that change. But slowly, Roman turned into- into this. Into  _ Caesar _ . A guy who had the local gangs — and even more underground organisations, and  _ even _ some not-so-underground ones — wrapped around his little finger. A guy who killed people and who had anyone followed if he considered them a threat. A real douchebag. 

(Of course, one could wonder what that made Remus, as someone who did the killing and the following around, but that's not something he himself took into consideration)

If you asked Remus, part of the reason that his twin changed so drastically was the accident he’d been in not too long after graduating high school. He was out with a friend, having some drinks in a cafe, celebrating their freedom for the time being. At the same time, a lab on the other side of the road was experimenting on grey matter. Something went wrong, and there was an explosion. Nothing big; only a handful of people got hurt and no one died. The matter seemed to phase through everything, so there was hardly any property damage on top of that. However, the incident did leave Roman with superpowers, and he wasn’t sure if he was right, but Remus really felt like it had corrupted his brother. He had managed to put up with this behaviour for quite a while, but at some point, it had to be enough. 

“No, you know what?” Remus finally stated forcefully, throwing the folder on the desk. “I quit.”

There was a brief silence after that. It was cold, heavy and ominous. Slowly, Roman got up, looking at his brother with a hard stare, hoping to be able to intimidate him — even though he already knew nothing could intimidate Remus. “What did you say?” he asked slowly and calmly. A tone of voice that would scare anyone that knew him. Even Jamie Marsh, one of their crew’s best agents after Remus would shiver if he heard that voice. But not Remus Silver. He did not even flinch. 

“I said,” he hissed, leaning his hands on Caesar’s desk, imitating the other’s position. “I.  _ Quit _ .”

For a few moments, the two twins glared at each other in tense silence. Anyone else would have looked away. Broken contact and immediately apologised. But not Roman. Not Remus. These two were the fiercest members in their entire organisation, and it was a surprise it took so long for them to actually clash. Sure, Remus had defied orders before. He’d stood up to Roman before. He’d called Roman out on his bullshit before. But Roman had always taken it. Because he was his brother. Because he wasn’t  _ that  _ far out of line. Because Remus was the best agent they had. But now… this broke the camel’s back. This was one step too far. 

“You wouldn’t dare,” Roman said smugly, finally standing up straight in an attempt to assert his dominance over Remus. Again, something that worked on anyone else but him. “I’ll have you killed.”

Remus let out a short chuckle, following his twin’s movements. “Fucking try me bitch,” he challenged. “I’m the best agent you have and you know it. Who’s supposed to take me? Marsh? God, don’t tell me you’re  _ that  _ desperate.”

Roman didn’t respond immediately, but instead, turned around so he could look at the view, at the city below him. The sun was setting. It looked stunning. Shame he didn’t have the time to fully appreciate it. 

“Maybe you’re right,” he mused, slowly taking off one of his golden gloves. “He’d never get the job done.”

He turned around and slowly approached the slightly younger sibling, clasping his hands behind his back to hide the fact that he had now taken off both his gloves. However, this position was still a telltale sign for Remus and all alarm bells in his head were ringing. He had to be prepared. 

“Guess I’ll have to do the dirty work, then.” Roman reached out one of his hands, which Remus quickly dodged, going for a jab to his brother’s ribs instead. It managed to delay Roman for a second, to keep him back for a moment, but he reacted quickly, managing to grab Remus’ hand with one of his ungloved hands. 

The two froze for a second. One of Remus’ abilities was turning his skin into something impenetrable, almost like steel. And that was exactly what he was doing right now. It was a risk, but… the only thing for him to do. Roman could drain life energy from others by touching them. It had a healing, and to some extent, rejuvenating effect on him. It enhanced his strength and durability on top of that. Every once in a while, Roman would ask for one of the lower gang members. People that wouldn’t be missed. He’d take their life energy, kill them. Usually in order to heal himself, but occasionally just to make himself feel better. To extend his lifespan just that bit longer. To make himself stronger. Right now, Remus’ hopes were focussed on his quickly formed theory that steel skin would protect him from his twin’s powers. 

For a moment, the twins were silent, looking at each other in anticipation. It was almost simultaneously that they realised that Remus had been right. His energy levels stayed the same. Roman didn’t feel any energy surge. He wasn’t absorbing anything. 

Roman growled softly, a sound that caused a smirk to appear on his brother’s features. Which didn’t last long, however, as Roman threw the other to the side, into the wall. Using his powers had been his only shot at killing Remus for right now. After all, he’d just turn his skin into steel any time someone tried to attack him. No weapons were efficient on them, no powers seemed to work on him. And all of that was great when he was on Roman’s side, but if he really switched… that sucked. He’d need a weapon that could actually have an impact on the Crocodile. But for now, he needed to get Remus out of here before he did something stupid. 

Remus pushed himself up, seemingly unaffected by being thrown into a fucking wall. Which, clearly, he was, since… steel skin. “That all you got, Ro-Ro?” the man asked mockingly, using an old nickname he  _ knew  _ Roman hated. He still used it every now and again, just to mess with Roman. He was just way too easy to piss off — and Remus knew there wasn’t much Roman would do; his position in the organisation was too high and he was too valuable. Of course, him quitting changed things. But he still wasn’t afraid of his twin. He knew he could take Roman any time of day. “Come on, you’re not even trying.”

He lunged at his brother, aiming a steely punch at his jaw. Roman jumped away, avoiding the punch so closely that he could feel a small gust of wind flowing past him. He took a moment to take in their positions and scan the room in a second. There was a window behind Remus, not too far away. Maybe he could… 

He kicked at one of Remus’ legs, successfully throwing him off balance, but the other regained his balance rather quickly, too, and aimed another hit at the slightly older brother. Roman reacted quickly and blocked the punch with his hand. A sharp crack split the air as Remus’s hand collided with Roman’s — a crack coming from Roman’s wrist. He felt a sharp pain in his wrist, but he didn’t flinch, not wanting to show weakness in the middle of a fight. 

The two of them continued to exchange blows for a little bit. Having grown up together, trained together, fought together, they each knew exactly how the other would think and what they would do. Even Remus’ steel skin and superhuman strength didn’t do much for him in this situation, because Roman was able to dodge or block most of his attacks. Even though he had most definitely sustained multiple injuries in the fight, he kept going. It wasn’t his goal to kill Remus right now anyway. He just needed him gone. 

Roman forced Remus backwards bit by bit, until they were right next to the window. Exactly as Roman had planned. Remus seemed to be unaware of this —and if he was aware of this, he was unaware of the rest of his twin’s plan. 

Quickly, one after the other, Roman threw a punch with each arm. As expected, Remus blocked both punches with ease. Roman used this moment to kick at his brother’s legs, throwing him off balance once more. This time, however, the so-called Crocodile couldn’t quite regain his balance quickly enough and Roman grabbed his twin’s shirt with his uninjured hand. 

“I promise you, you will regret this,” he whispered in his younger twin’s ear, right before he threw him through the window and watched as he fell down the tall building, colliding with the ground with a loud bang. 

For a second, Roman blankly stared down at his twin’s body lying on the ground. Remus was slowly trying to push himself up, so he wasn’t dead. Shame. At the very least, he was hurt. Getting up was a difficult task for him, it seemed. So at the very fucking least, he had gotten hurt. He’d felt  _ something _ . Even impenetrable skin and super strength couldn’t protect him from  _ everything _ . Roman huffed. “About right,” he muttered as he turned around, walking back to his desk with a slight limp. 

He sat back down on his seat and grabbed his phone, quickly calling Jamie Marsh, one of the higher-ups in the organisation. It didn’t take long for Marsh to answer his phone — about right; it was  _ Roman  _ calling, after all. He was a priority in any situation. 

“Marsh, it’s me,” he announced immediately, cradling his injured right wrist against his chest. “You know the gangs, right? I need some… healing. Find someone disposable and send them up, will you? Also, someone needs to clean up the glass outside. And get someone to replace a window in my office. And the pavement.”

“Of course, sir,” Marsh answered on the other side of the line, trying to make a mental note of all these tasks. “Anything else?”

Roman considered this for a moment, leaning back in his seat. “You know what?” he finally asked, realising that he might have… forgotten a few things. “Yes. I need a commission from The Inventor. Make me an appointment as soon as possible. And arrange a meeting with the Top for tomorrow. We’ve got some things to discuss.”


	2. www.heroic-crimefighting-updates.com

_Hey guys!_

_I’m sorry for being so absent lately, uni has been really busy and I haven’t had that much time to do the research lately, I’m soo sorry!! BUT I’m here now and ready to talk about anything super that has happened lately._

_I’ve gotten a lot of messages on here, but also on ig asking about the Crocodile-situation and the myths and conspiracies, so I will start with that._

_As you guys probably all know, the Crocodile mysteriously disappeared almost two months ago. Some people report having seen him get thrown out of a window of a building downtown. How much of that is true, I’m not sure. It’s probably true, I mean…_ something _must have been thrown out of that window because it was broken, and there was a large point of impact on the pavement. So it seems likely, especially since, with his skillset, it seems like he could be capable of leaving a dent, but that’s all I know. It might be a hoax, I don’t know the details._

_Either way, it’s pretty well known that the Crocodile is closely working together with Caesar — and with that, the Red Gang, the Dragontooth, and whatever else Caesar has under his control. Because at this point… who even knows, right?_

_It’s_ also _pretty well known that Caesar is a temperamental guy, and he’s killed more than once. We don’t even know exactly how many people he’s killed. On top of that, we also know that he is not scared of killing people who are or used to be part of his organisation. Think, for example, of Philip Crane, a man who used to be an important member of the Dragontooth, until he left. He revealed some sensitive information, and a day later, he was found dead in his home. The cause of death was pinned down to a heart attack but there were signs of breaking and entering, signs of a struggle. Neighbours claim to have seen two_ _people entering his home at night. Due to all of this, it is believed that it was Caesar who killed Crane with his death-touch, but this was never confirmed._

_So, with that information, it might be likely that there was a conflict between Crocodile and Caesar that led to him being thrown out of the window. I think we can conclude that Crocodile is — or at least seems like — a rash person. Someone having a conflict with him does not sound weird. To me, at least. Especially when that someone is Caesar._

_So… why didn’t Caesar death-touch him? To be fair… I’m not sure. Maybe it didn’t work. Maybe his strong skin stopped it. I don’t know. I could be wrong altogether, but this is my theory. It’s not likely that Caesar chose not to kill Crocodile. It would be a risky move, especially if my theory proves correct. Crocodile is dangerous and if there really is a conflict with them, having him out on the street with a grudge would be dangerous. So to me, the only option is that_ it didn’t work _. But I don’t know why._

_Well then, where is Crocodile? He’s probably still out there. He might be dead, but I almost feel like we would have known. I feel like Caesar would want to let people know that Crocodile is dead. Why? Easy:_

  * _Croc is dangerous. People fear him. Letting everyone know he’s dead will cause a sense of relief, and will maybe allow people to let their guard down just a bit, making for easier targets. It’s a tactical advantage._


  * _Sending a message. As it seems almost impossible to kill Crocodile with his steel skin, being able to kill him will be a sign of great proficiency, abilities or powers. It will send a message to us citizens, to their enemies, but also to the heroes going around town. To anyone who even thinks of prying in their business. Anyone who could kill Crocodile deserves respect. Their idea, obviously, I’m saying this from Caesar’s point of view, not mine._



_So yeah. I think Crocodile’s still out there. Is he in the area? I don’t know. Could be anywhere. But he is alive. Hiding, maybe. But as long as he doesn’t pose a threat, he doesn’t seem like the big issue at hand. This is all just a theory. Do with it as you will._

_That’s all I have time for today guys, again I’m sorry for being away for so long!! I’ve gotten a bunch more questions from you guys relating to the others. Next post should be up in a few days, and it will answer some of your questions about Alibi and Marksman._

_As always, thank you guys so for reading this! I love you all very very much, until the next time <3 _

_\- Patton H._


	3. Visitation of the Ghost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Threatening, smoking

Absentmindedly, Patton entered his small apartment. It wasn’t anything big — just a small living area/kitchen, bedroom and something that had been designated as the bathroom — but it was enough for one person to survive in. Besides, it was all he could afford. Being a student, he didn’t have a lot of money so he had to manage with what little he could get. At least he had been able to find a place for himself and he didn’t have to stay in a dorm on-campus. He’d tried that and while it was nice getting to know people that way… it wasn’t his thing. His roommates weren’t, at least. 

He scrolled through some comments on his latest blogpost as he dropped his bag on the floor next to his door, before heading for his couch. It had been a long day at college today, and he needed some moments of relaxation before he would get back into homework. Maybe he could make some progress on his next blogpost, too. 

But then… Patton smelled smoke. And it was definitely coming from inside. Had he left the stove on? No, he hadn’t even  _ used  _ the stove today. But what would the smoke be all about then? Was he really sure he hadn’t used the stove?

In a panic, he looked up, almost dropping his phone. He couldn’t remember leaving the stove on, or… or whatever could cause a fire, but there was  _ certainly  _ smoke, and that was  _ definitely  _ bad. 

However, to his relief, there was no fire. To his terror, there was a stranger sitting on the countertop in his kitchen. Legs crossed, lazy smirk on his face, cigarette between his index finger and middle finger.

“Thank God, there you are,” the figure smirked, bringing his cigarette closer to his lips. “I was worried I had the wrong number.”

“What-” Patton stammered slightly, dropping his phone for real. He quickly felt around in the pocket of his jacket. He had his keys, but his pepper spray- his eyes darted to his bag. It had to be in there. “How- Who are you? How did- how did you get in?”

The figure chuckled, blowing out a small cloud of smoke. “Your lock is surprisingly easy to pick,” he grinned, ignoring the other’s first question. “Old make. Clearly.”

Now that was… concerning, to put things lightly. Who the hell was this guy and what was he doing in his house? Why did he break in, and why on Earth was he smoking a cigarette on Patton’s damned kitchen counter? Patton took a few steps back to get to his bag. As he did so, he never took his eyes off this stranger who’d seemingly broken into his house to smoke a cigarette. 

The man had hazel eyes, brown hair with a silver streak here and there — dyed, very obviously — and a moustache. He wore steel toe boots underneath his black jeans. The only thing that  _ wasn’t  _ black about his outfit was the lime-green shirt he wore underneath his leather jacket. Patton didn’t know who the hell he was, but he wasn’t good news. He couldn’t be. No one who could be labeled as ‘good news’ broke into someone’s apartment to smoke a cigarette on their counter.

“What are you doing here?” Patton heard a tremble in his voice, no matter how steady he tried to sound. For a moment, he considered running out the door and not coming back, but what good would that be? The man would probably be able to catch up easily enough. Keeping him at a distance would be best right now, until he found an opening to call the police. 

“I hate to say it, but… I need help.”

Patton frowned, feeling his bag behind his feet now. “My help?”

“You’re Patton Heart, right?”

The confusion Patton felt just a second ago was quickly replaced by that good old terror when the man used his actual name. Great. This was a stalker, then. 

“Look, I know you have that little blog of yours,” the man continued, eyeing Patton’s movements with a slight amusement on his face. He took a brief break to take another drag of his cigarette before continuing. “And I need help finding someone. I can’t believe I have to do this, but I think you might actually be better equipped than I am.”

The man seemed absolutely revolted by the mere fact that he had to admit this. Having to say that someone else was better at something than he was seemed to be a struggle for him. 

“What- what do you mean?” Patton was purely confused now. Terrified? Yes. But also confused. Every word that came out of this man’s mouth seemed to raise more questions and he gave not a single answer. 

The stranger sighed, taking a final drag of his cigarette. “I don’t suppose you have an ashtray, right?” He shook his head almost immediately, seemingly already answering his question himself. “Who am I kidding? Of course you don’t, I mean, look at you.” 

He made a vague gesture to Patton, before lifting his free hand and pushing his cigarette against his skin. Involuntarily, Patton flinched, but he saw that the man did not even respond to this. Like he didn’t even feel anything. 

“Your cute little blogpost yesterday caught my attention,” the man continued, dropping the now extinguished cigarette on the counter as he jumped off. “Gave me an idea. So… you’re going to help me.”

Patton shook his head as he took a step back, his back now leaning against the wall. There was still some space between the two of them, a few feet probably, but the other still came closer and closer, and Patton felt like they couldn’t be far enough from each other. “What do you mean? Who are you?”

“Right, where are my manners?” the man wondered with a small grin as he stepped even closer to Patton, now almost an arm's length away. “My real name won’t do. But you may call me Crocodile. Croc for short. It’s a pleasure.” He finished this with a quick wink.

At hearing this, Patton’s eyes widened. Was this- the  _ actual  _ Crocodile? The infamous criminal? Murderer, kidnapper- whatever? 

A soft chuckle sounded as the student’s shock and fear. “I see you’ve made the link,” the stranger grinned. “Look. Your post was… not far off. About Caesar, I mean. And I need to find Alibi somehow, but I don’t know where to find him and I don’t feel like spending my nights trying to track him or lure him out. I’ve got better things to do.  _ You _ , however, know his habits, so you’re gonna have to help me.”

“Alibi?” Patton echoed, confused about why this criminal would need the help of the strongest and most well-known hero of the area. “Why?”

“Like I said, I need his help.” Crocodile responded, raising an eyebrow at Patton. It was clear he was starting to get fed up with this going back and forth. He didn’t have all day! Or- technically, he did. He was just impatient and didn’t  _ want  _ to wait all day. “The rest is none of your concern.”

“And you- you  _ really  _ need his help?” It was hard to believe that this guy needed anyone’s help to begin with, as the Crocodile was probably one of the fiercest villains out there, if not  _ the  _ fiercest. The fact that he needed help from a  _ hero  _ was even harder to believe. The two of them were now so close that Patton could smell his smoky breath. He absolutely hated it. “You’re not going to kill him?”

“I’m not going to kill him if he doesn’t make me,” the villain responded, slightly annoyed. “You, however...” He gave Patton a wicked grin and stepped closer, leaning in so he could whisper the last bit in the student’s ear. “One more of those questions and I might just rip your throat out. Understood?”

He pulled back so he could watch Patton’s reaction. Much to his satisfaction, there was a look of fear on his face. Mostly visible in his eyes. The eyes always gave everything away. 

“So… are we doing this?”

Patton looked at the man before him. He was insane. Absolutely insane. Which was obvious, of course. He had been a part of Caesar’s organisation ever since its starting days. He was there as the villain worked his way up and he was there to clean up the mess the others made. He had a huge record. Dozens of confirmed kills, and probably even more under the radar. He was… a danger. Incredibly dangerous. 

But Patton couldn’t say no. If he did… he could die. He didn’t  _ want  _ to die. 

“Sure,” he finally decided with a shaky nod. “What… what do you need?” 

Crocodile smiled broadly, clapping his hands together as he stepped back. “Perfect,” he said. “I knew I could count on you. Very well… I need to know where to find him. Preferably tomorrow. Need to see him as soon as possible.”

Patton nodded, relishing this bit of extra space — it wasn’t much, since the villain was still keeping an incredibly close eye on him, but at least he had a little bit of space to move. “Alright,” he breathed, trying to focus and give this man the information he needed before anything bad happened. It felt so,  _ so  _ bad, but what else was he supposed to do? He just hoped that this wouldn’t get Alibi into any trouble. “Alright, he… he patrols every day. I don’t know his route, but… from what I recall- your best bet might be… between eight, and- and, I don’t know. Midnight, maybe. Later on Fridays and weekends, since… people going out. But I… I really don’t know where you could find him. The centre is your best bet. From what I know, he usually starts his patrol in the centre of town and works his way out, unless anything catches his eye. Other than that… I can’t be much more specific.” 

The villain hummed under his breath, softly repeating the information Patton had given him. It was a shame that he couldn’t get the exact information about where to find this hero, but he also knew it was ridiculous to expect a student in journalism to know the ins and outs about the hero’s patrol route. It was probably random anyways. The organisation would have found out his habits otherwise, he was sure of it. He couldn’t believe that Caesar wouldn’t have people trying to figure out his ways. 

“Are you sure?”

“Sure as I can be,” Patton said, not looking at the man in front of him. “It’s just… my estimate. Most sightings occur during that time, so… that’s your best chance, that’s all I can give you.”

Crocodile nodded, patting the student’s cheek slightly. “That’ll have to do then, thank you,” he said with a surprisingly sweet grin. But then, his entire demeanour changed. “You better be right, cause I know where to find you, sweetcheeks.” He gave Patton a threatening glare as he walked back. 

Patton found himself quite unable to respond to that. He didn’t know how to respond to any of this to begin with. It was all happening so fast, and every time he thought he had a grip on the situation, something else came out of nowhere. At this point… he didn’t know how to deal with it anymore. He just let it happen. 

Seemingly satisfied with this answer, Crocodile stepped back, moving to walk away, leave the apartment and go his own way. Patton could sense a certain sense of relief wash over him at the realisation that he would be alone again. The villain’s presence made him… more than just a little uncomfortable and he couldn’t wait to be alone again. 

“Oh, before I forget... just a tip,” the villain realised, stopping dead in his tracks, hand still on the doorknob. “Be careful with what you post on that little blog of yours. You don’t want to upset the big emperor.”

Patton frowned slightly. The emperor? Was that supposed to be… “Caesar knows about my blog?”

“You write about ‘everything super in the area’, of course he does,” the villain said with a chuckle, as if it was all plainly obvious and Patton was an idiot to not realise this. “His paranoid ass keeps an eye on anything you put out there. Doesn’t want you to post anything incriminating, you know?  _ But  _ he also knows where you live, where you study, where you work, and where your friends and family work, live and/or study. So you post anything that comes too close to exposing him and-” He ran his finger over his throat, looking Patton right into the eyes as he did so. “- you’re out. Just a tip.” 

He winked at the student one last time as he opened the door, leaving the apartment without another word. 

Now, Patton was left all by himself in his apartment, wondering what the hell that was all about. His thoughts raced at a million miles an hour. That had to have been the real Crocodile, but… what the hell? What was the meaning of this? Was the last bit he said about… Caesar, was that real? Was  _ anything  _ he’d said even real?

Patton just really hoped he hadn’t just endangered Alibi. Or himself. Or his friends and family. That was most certainly not what he thought what would happen when he started this blog. It started as just a project for a class in uni, but somewhere along the way… he got invested. And he found he couldn’t stop. So he kept going and going. Until he couldn’t stop anymore. And now he was in… whatever the hell this mess of a situation would be. He really hoped he hadn’t just gotten himself involved in something shady or bad. If only things would be okay. 


	4. Wires Pulling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: reference to killing someone

“Knock, knock,” Roman called in a singsong voice as he stepped into The Inventor’s lab. “I do surely hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

The Inventor looked up from something technical he was working on, taking off the welding goggles he was wearing to look at the newcomer. 

“Caesar,” he said with a curt nod. “I was not aware you were coming in today. How can I help you?”

He put aside his work in progress and turned around in his chair so he could look at the man fully. The Inventor was a… he was an unreadable man. He did business with anyone who would offer him money, and even Deceit had a hard time trying to figure out when he was lying or not. Highly inconvenient for Roman, but the man was a skilled technician and inventor. Easily the best in the business — at least when it came to the kinds of weapons and tech that were less legal and more experimental. 

“I just wanted to see how my commission was going,” Roman answered shortly, looking at the man before him, unmoving. “As I told you, it is of the highest priority and I would like it to be done as quickly as possible.” 

“I can assure you that I am doing my best,” The Inventor said, pushing aside some of the clutter on his desk to reach for a small folder. “You can look at the designs I made to check it for yourself, but this is highly experimental and there is no precedent for this. It’s all purely hypothetical, so it’s slower than most of my other work…”

“Well, then I suggest that you speed it up a little,” Roman interrupted through gritted teeth. The hand holding his richly decorated cane tightened its grip subconsciously as the man glared daggers at the other. “I have told you before. This is my biggest priority and as such, it should be yours.” 

Nevertheless, he grabbed the folder out of the smaller man’s hand and looked at the sketches for himself. As much as he hated to admit it… it actually looked good. Not that it was a surprise, as this was The Inventor. The biggest name when it came to weapons. But Roman hated to admit it, because this guy seemingly did not prioritize this assignment as much as Roman did — as much as he himself should do too. 

“Designs look decent enough,” he huffed, shoving the folder back in The Inventor’s hand. “Care to explain what it’s supposed to do?”

“My hypothesis is that, since Barrier has the ability to cancel out the powers of others, I can use a form of radiation similar to their signature to achieve a similar effect,” the man started to explain, glancing up at Caesar to make sure the man was still following. After a curt nod, he continued. “If I can create a particle with their characteristics, I can make a gun that’s powered by this particular particle. It should be able to fire an energy blast with, again, this signature. That should be able to cancel out Crocodile’s powers for long enough that you might be able to take him out without him being able to use his steel skin as a defense. The only thing is, I will need a sample of Barrier’s DNA to research. I’ve tried to contact one of your people, but I haven’t gotten a response so far.”

At this announcement, Caesar looked up, narrowing his eyes ever so slightly. “ _What?_ ” he asked, his voice dangerously low. He was furious, but not at The Inventor — and the man in question knew this — no, he was furious at the person he had contacted. Everyone in the organisation should know that any message from the man was a top priority, especially if it was related to a commision in progress. And this particular weapon was even _more_ of a priority. It was essential if they wanted to take out Crocodile — and he really fucking wanted to. “Who was it?”

“Deceit.”

Caesar nodded slowly, making a mental note to have a heart-to-heart with Deceit when he came back from this meeting. He wanted to be sure that he knew what was asked from him. It would be a shame to have to kill him; he was a useful facet in the organisation. His ability to tell when someone was lying was exceptional and it came in handy almost every day. 

“Right, I will make sure you get the sample as soon as possible,” he said, his voice still low and dangerous. “I do have one request, though.” The Inventor looked up and tilted his head, waiting for the man to continue. “I don’t want my people to have to carry around two guns. Make it so that this one can kill Croc.”

The Inventor nodded, grabbing one of the many pencils strewn around and made a few notes on an empty page, drawing a quick sketch underneath it. 

“How long will it take to get this ready?” Caesar asked, following the scientist’s progress. 

Without stopping what he was doing, the man hummed softly, trying to think. “After I get the sample… six to seven days if all goes well. If my theory proves wrong, it might be up to ten.”

Knowing the intellect of the man he was dealing with, Roman was quite confident that the theory would be correct, which meant another week until he finally got his hands on this weapon. That was _way_ too long. He’d already wasted way too much time trying to track dead end after dead end. With the rumours of the fate of Crocodile flaring up, he needed to be sure he could kill his brother when he had the chance. His people were still looking, but Remus couldn’t hide forever. Sooner or later, he’d have to show his dumb face. And they had to be prepared lest this operation turn out less than ideal. 

“Make it three days and I’ll double the money,” he bargained. He was aware that The Inventor would not accept this offer — the two of them had done more than enough business together that he’d be able to predict exactly what would happen. The Inventor would try to buy a little more time, probably going for five days, which could give Roman the chance to go for four. Not what he wanted, but it would be a deal and the gun would be ready in just a few days.

“Make it five and we have a deal,” the technician said lazily, doing exactly what Caesar had predicted he would do. 

“Four,” he eventually decided. He still hated having to give leeway even if it was a little bit, but he’d already been waiting for this order way longer than he liked, and he wasn’t going to wait any longer than he had to.

“Fine.” It was a compromise. Roman lost a little bit, but The Inventor lost a little bit as well, so that cancelled out and would mean that Roman didn’t lose anything after all. It was all relative. They were fine.

“Good.” Caesar made to walk away, hands behind his back. Before he reached the door, though, he turned back around, giving the other a long stare. “I will make sure that someone will bring you a sample tomorrow. If something else comes up, I expect you to address me directly.”

When he finished his sentence, the man stared at The Inventor for just a moment or two. Then, he turned around and walked out the door.


	5. Let's Kill Tonight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: mentions of drugs and violence

Virgil hummed a song under his breath as he walked downstairs. He’d just finished a commission — fucking finally, that specific piece had taken him ages to finish — and decided to call it a day. He still had two commissions and another art restoration project waiting for him, as well as a project of his own he’d been hoping to start, but he really had to call it quits here. It had been a long day, and Virgil knew it was nowhere near over. If anything, it was only just beginning. 

The artist closed the door behind him and went to the kitchen, hoping to find something for him to eat. He probably had some rice laying around, but other than that… he wasn’t sure. He really needed to pay attention to what he needed to buy. His friend, Remy told him that almost every day, but he just… forgot. He wasn’t good at taking care of himself, okay? 

Luckily, there was just enough in his kitchen to make a decent enough meal, but only for tonight. Tomorrow, he really needed to go to the store and get some more food. If he remembered. 

Still humming that damned song that wouldn’t get out of his head, Virgil set a reminder in his phone so he would actually remember to buy some fucking food. Because God knows he was too forgetful. How he managed to survive on his own was one big mystery to him. 

He made himself some rice, which he ate while watching Netflix. It was a habit at this point. There wasn’t much he could do anyways. There was no one else here and he wasn’t going to eat his food in complete silence. That would probably kill him inside. No, he needed something to keep him occupied while he ate. 

When he’d taken care of everything, Virgil went upstairs again, walking into his bedroom. Which, ironically, looked like it had been hit by a hurricane. From his nightstand, the man grabbed a small purple watch and something that looked like sunglasses. He put on the glasses and the watch, before looking down at the small screen of the watch. Instead of showing the time, it showed a small message. “ _Loading_ ”, it said. Almost immediately, the progress bar above it filled up, and the message made way for a small list of devices available in the area. His phone, his tv, a dozen of other tv from others on the apartment block. And, at the very top, a device with the ID “ _Al_Mk2_ ”. Virgil selected that one, so the watch and the glasses would sync up. Only when that was done, did he press the small purple button on the side of the watch. 

In just a second, a smooth, light armour formed, originating from the glasses and watch, starting at his wrist and head, but quickly covering him head to toe. The armour was mostly black and purple, with a hint of white and grey here and there because… well, because of asexual representation, mostly. It was a small detail, but one he had wanted to include nonetheless. Virgil grinned and opened his window, but not before he did two things.

First of all, he used his powers to turn invisible — he didn’t want anyone to see him in this outfit, after all. Second of all, he made sure that there was no one on the street paying attention to him, since it would be strange to see a window opening with no one standing there to open it. That was only a small issue in Virgil’s case, seeing as he lived on the tenth floor, and he doubted that people would be looking up that much, but there were enough buildings around. Just one person needed to look out of their window and he might just have a problem at his hands. 

When he was certain he was save, the man carefully got on the windowsill and leaned out the window. As he looked down, he was met with a feeling of terror, as well as a strange sense of peace. He had looked down at this view many times — pretty much every night for the past… at least five years — and it still scared him, yet its familiarity almost seemed to appease him. He knew he wouldn’t die. Not if he focussed enough. 

Virgil stepped out carefully, using his aerokinetic abilities to make sure he wouldn’t fall down. Over the years, he’d gained a certain sense of control over his powers that allowed him to just… float in the air. As if he was just standing on solid ground. If he lingered on it for too long, if he thought about the image of a man just floating one hundred feet in the air, he would honestly die. It wasn’t that creepy to _do_ it, since he had faith in his powers. The thought was just a billion times worse. 

As he stood there, floating meters above the city life, Virgil carefully pushed his window shut, just a bit. Enough so it would look closed to anyone that looked at it, but not so much that he couldn’t open it anymore when he came back. When he had done this, he took a step back to make sure it looked okay. Only then, did he turn around, using his powers to fly him to the city center for his patrol. He landed on a roof of a supermarket, turning visible once more. 

The beginning of the night was fairly uneventful. Virgil saw a drug deal happening between some kid and another person and decided to wait around. Not because drugs was bad, or anything of the kind. He just knew that a drug deal had to be related to either the Red Gang or the Dragontooth. Which meant Caesar. If he could figure out where this kid went after the deal, he might be able to find more information on one of the gangs. Preferably something that would get him to Caesar. For ages now, Virgil had been trying to find something about the man. _Anything_. But he seemed to be unable to get even remotely close to the man. He was so well-hidden, shielded by layer upon layer of all the organisations and gangs he had underneath him. Frustrating as all hell, to say the least. 

Unfortunately, this led up to pretty much nothing. After the deal, the kid went on to roam the streets. And no matter how badly Virgil wanted to follow him all night, until he found out where he was going, it wasn’t worth it. Caesar was a big fish, the biggest in the entire ocean, but even he wasn’t worth this. He would waste an entire night following this kid, while other people might get killed or hurt otherwise. Of course, that risk always existed, since he could only be one place at a time, but still… the thought of knowing what could happen wasn’t a pleasant one. He’d rather keep an eye on the city. Caesar wasn’t going anywhere. And neither was Alibi. 

At some point during the evening, Virgil spotted a group of three people, dressed in dark colours to blend in with their surroundings. After following them for a little bit, he saw them going into a dark alleyway, closing in on someone else who clearly wasn’t a part of their group. As two of them pulled out a knife, Virgil jumped down behind the three. 

He managed to tackle one of them to the ground before the three even noticed that he was there. Unfortunately, they were also the only one without a knife, so Virgil still had to deal with two knives being pointed at him. Of course, that wasn’t a huge issue to him; he’d dealt with more than just a couple of knives. But it never got to the point where he was comfortable with the thought of two armed people opposite him. He could always slip up. Something could always go wrong.

Not this time around, though. Virgil was able to fight and disarm the two. It was around this point that the three criminals realised they were in way over their heads and the moment they got the chance, they ran out of the alley. 

Alibi followed them with his gaze and contemplated going after them. But, as he turned around, he realised that he could spend his time better if he looked after their intended victim, who had pushed himself into the corner of the small alley. 

“Are you okay?” he asked, slowly making his way towards the other. 

The stranger nodded, barely able to look at the hero in front of him. “Y- yeah,” he stammered. “I’m good. Thank- thank you.”

“Of course,” Virgil said softly. “It’s my job.” He smiled at the young man in front of him, even though it wasn’t quite visible behind the mask. “Is there anything else I can do?” 

“No, no, but… thank you.” The other smiled carefully. “I… I should be going out, I…” He finished his sentence with a shake of his head as he made his way out of the alley. 

“Are you sure?” Alibi called after him, unsure of what to do. The man hadn’t been harmed, but he didn’t know what those criminals had wanted. If there was anything he could do…

“Yeah,” the stranger said, already starting to make his way out of the alley. “Thanks again, but- no. I’m- I’m fine.”

“Pst, Ali,” a voice suddenly spoke somewhere behind Virgil, followed by the sound of someone jumping down from something. 

Virgil whipped around, activating one of the electronic shields on the wrist of his suit as a reflex. Before him, he saw a guy dressed in a black and green outfit and mask. A guy Virgil recognized all too well. Crocodile. A dangerous supervillain known to have ties to Caesar. Not only did he have superhuman strength and could he make his skin impenetrable at will, he also had impeccable aim and incredible fighting skills. He was one of the underworld’s best assassins. Until he disappeared a few weeks ago. People thought Caesar might have killed him. Clearly enough… not. Unless this was a ghost. 

“What?” the hero asked warily, clenching one of his fists. He was going to allow the villain to speak, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t vigilant. If the man tried anything, Virgil would be ready to fight him. He could feel the flow of the air around him and he was more than ready to fight the villain if he had to. 

“Look, you’re after Caesar, right?” Crocodile asked, holding up his hands. “What am I saying? Of course you are, he’s a dick.”

“What’s it to you?” Alibi frowned. He looked around, making sure that there was no one sneaking up on him. He couldn’t afford to be caught off guard with a guy like this. He was dangerous. Dealing with him was like playing chess; you always needed to be thinking three steps ahead of the game because you just _knew_ that’s what he would be doing. 

“I’m just saying… I get it. He’s a jerkwad. In fact… I want to help you.”

“You want to help?” Now _that_ caught Virgil off guard. It was dangerous, but it was something so unexpected, too. No matter how many options crossed his mind, that was something he could never predict. Ever. “Why?”

“Well, it’s easy to say we’re not… on good terms,” the villain shrugged, studying his gloved hand lazily as he leaned his back against the wall behind him. “I got tired of cleaning up after his lazy ass, he yelled at me and tried to death-touch me. Guess it’s a good thing steel skin cancels out death-touch.”

“So he tries to kill you, and now you want him dead?”

“Yeah, duh,” Crocodile scoffed, dropping his hand as he looked up at the hero. “It’s him or me. And I don’t feel like dying. Not to the likes of _him_ , at the very least, thank you very much.” Virgil hesitated and the villain seemed to notice his reluctance, if the way he rolled his eyes meant anything. “Trust me, you’re the last person I wanted to work with, but — as much as I hate to say it — I can’t take him out all by myself. And if I can’t do it…” He stopped to critically study Virgil for a second. “... neither can you.”

Virgil raised an eyebrow. “Thanks.”

Crocodile winked at the hero behind his mask. “Of course, babe,” he grinned. “So… we doing this or what?”

Alibi gritted his teeth slightly, using his control of the air to push the villain back into the wall. More to make a statement than anything. “Don’t call me babe and we might.”

The other chuckled softly, closing his eyes for just one second. “Sure thing, love,” he said with a cocky grin at the hero. “Just give me the word. Remember, I’ve got everything you need on lil’ ol’ Caesar. All the ins and outs. I can give you the dirt. Just… tell me.”

Right. This was going to be difficult. If they really were going to work together. This guy was… he was a lot. 

“I’m going to regret this,” Virgil mumbled to himself before giving the villain in front of him a glare. His powers let up, allowing the other space to move once more. “One chance. You get one chance to prove that you’re legit. You screw up once and you’re out, right?”

Once again, the villain winked at Alibi. “Sure thing, weather boy,” he grinned. “I won’t disappoint you.”

“You better not,” the hero muttered. “Right. Meet me tomorrow. Seven pm. Right here. You can do that?”

“If I have to.” 

“Sure.” That was better than nothing. “I’ll see you then. This better not be one of your plots, Croc. I’ll be ready for you.”

Virgil prepared to take his leave, using both his air powers and his invisibility to get out of this place unseen. As he did so, he just heard a cynical “Oh dear, I’m terrified.” But he chose not to pay any attention to it. He had better things to worry about for right now. Crocodile could come later. 

Alibi spent the rest of the right patrolling the streets, only returning back home around two am. He was exhausted, but he was used to it. Being a hero was something he loved doing, albeit tiring as all hell. It was also rewarding. And frustrating. Terrifying, at times. But rewarding. 

After closing the blinds and turning visible once more, Virgil desynced the glasses and watch, as the suit seemed to retract itself, hiding back in its case. He put the two objects down on his nightstand and walked downstairs, to drink something and grab a quick snack before he would try to get some sleep. Walking around the city all night did cost some energy, after all. 

After having had some water and a chocolate chip cookie — he deserved that for dealing with the Crocodile, he reasoned — Virgil took a brief shower to refresh himself a bit, and finally went to bed. And tomorrow, he’d have to go through this all over again.


	6. Pro Memoria

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: threatening, intimidation, mentioned/implied burning

Dorian walked into Caesar’s office. He heard from Jamie Marsh that the big guy himself wanted to speak to him. It was a bad sign if anything. Normally, if he was needed for a job, or for a meeting, he’d hear it from the man directly. He was one of the top members, after all. He wasn’t sure why, as he was the only one in the top without powers, without a list of murders behind his name. Apparently, he had shown himself useful enough with his ability to tell lie from a truth and his knack for manipulation. 

He knocked on the door and waited for Caesar’s smooth voice to invite him in. He then stepped into the room, closing the door behind him and walking until he was in front of the desk, making sure to keep some distance between himself and the desk Roman was sat at. Usually, he would come closer to the desk, but he saw the signs and he just knew he’d done something wrong. He just wished he knew what it was. 

“Dorian Vera,” Caesar said slowly, dragging out the words in a way that made Dorian uncomfortable. He was almost never addressed by his actual name. Let alone his _full_ name. This was about the equivalent of a parent using your full name, middle name included. Only difference being that this person was much, much more dangerous. Even if you left out the fact that he could kill you with a single touch. “Please, have a seat.”

He gestured to one of the chairs in front of the desk, watching Dorian like a lion watching his prey, his hand folded underneath his chin. Everything about this scene set off a million alarm bells with Dorian, but he could not refuse because this wasn’t any person. This was _Caesar_ for fuck’s sake. One did not refuse Caesar and get away with that. The only person who could do that to some extent, was Remus, and he had ruined his chances when he quit the organisation. 

Carefully, watching his surroundings, Dorian walked forwards, sitting down on one of the two chairs. He noticed Caesar’s cane leaning against the desk. It was within the leader’s range, easily, so if he needed it… 

“Do you have any idea why you’re here, Dorian?” Caesar asked coldly, remaining unmoving as his eyes seemed to bore into the other’s soul. 

“I’m afraid I don’t,” Dorian answered simply. No matter how his heart was racing, no matter how scared and cautious he was, he didn’t flinch. He didn’t show a sign of terror. Over the years, he’d mastered the art of building up a mask that even Caesar couldn’t crack, no matter how hard he might try. That was the advantage of being the lie detector of the organisation. He came into contact with liars and pretenders almost every day, he could see through anyone. And he knew exactly how to fake things in a convincing way. There was no one that could see his real emotions if he didn’t let them. 

“Well then,” Caesar said, lifting one hand to his chin while the other came to rest on the top of his desk. “Let me refresh your memory.”

In a swift motion, he pushed his seat backwards, getting up. With a few long strides, he walked around his desk, until he was standing right in front of Dorian, now leaning against his desk.

“Last night, I had a meeting with The Inventor,” he explained slowly, his cold eyes locking on Dorian’s. “And he told me he had tried to reach out to you with a message. Does this sound familiar?”

Crap. Dorian had indeed received the message from The Inventor. It was about the Crocodile Hunter. The weapon Caesar had commissioned as a means to take care of Remus once they found him. When he got the message, Dorian truly did consider going to Caesar, as he probably would have wanted, but something stopped him. 

He cared about Remus, he really did. Whether he could say they were friends, he didn’t know, but he liked the guy. There was something about his attitude that everyone else in this organisation lacked. Some sort of… enjoyment. A spark, perhaps. And it drew him closer to the other. And at first… he hadn’t cared when he heard the news that Caesar would have Remus killed. No, in fact, he’d understood. After all; Remus was the one who had decided to leave the organisation. It was to be expected. Caesar wouldn’t let that go unpunished. Even if Remus was a friend of sorts, Dorian was okay with it.

But then… he got the message from The Inventor, and it hit him. The reality of the situation, the fact that they would actually _kill_ Remus if they found him. In that moment, he made the decision to try and protect the Crocodile to the best of his abilities. He wouldn’t last long, he was sure, but he wanted to try. He wanted to try and stall, until he could find Remus and let him know what they were planning for him. But he hadn’t expected that Caesar would pay the technician a visit himself. Not yet, at least. 

“I have to say it doesn’t,” Dorian lied effortlessly. “I don’t recall getting any message from him. If I had, I would have let you know.”

“I thought you’d say as much,” Caesar hummed, never once breaking eye contact. He crossed his arms in front of his chest. “But I’m afraid I don’t believe you.”

Dorian hummed softly, showing no sign of emotion. “Shame.”

“Sure is,” the other man said slowly. He leaned forwards a little bit, trying to intimidate the younger male before him, even if he was aware that Dorian was exceptionally resistant to this. Sooner or later, even he had to crack, he just knew it. And Caesar was patient. He was fine with waiting however long it would take for Deceit to crack. “I will give you one chance to admit it and I will let you off. Just admit that you got the message and ignored it.”

Yeah, right. That was a trap. Caesar was a temperamental man, and on top of that, he was very attached to to his power and position in the organisation. If someone admitted to screwing up, he would make sure they faced the repercussions. Even if he promised he would spare them, he wasn’t to be trusted. His word meant nothing. 

Dorian simply shook his head. “I have gotten no message,” he promised. “You are allowed to check my phone if you want to.” He had deleted the message a few days ago, wanting to get rid of the evidence in case anyone questioned him about it. 

Caesar chuckled, pushing himself up to pace around the office a bit. “Of course,” he said, turning around to face Dorian again when he made it to the other side. “I check it and I won’t find anything because you, oh so sneakily, deleted the text as soon as you got it because you knew you had no intention of doing what it said. Don’t take me for a fool, Vera. I’m not tricked so easily.” 

The look he gave Dorian when he walked back was utterly terrifying. Dangerous. There was a hint of amusement, but it was- well.. dangerous. There was no way around it. It wasn’t a happy kind of amusement, but the kind one might feel when seeing their prey struggling to keep their head above water. Knowing that they would win eventually. It was only a matter of time. 

“Very well,” Caesar finally sighed as he pushed the other chair closer to where Deceit was seated, so they could sit face to face. So he could get a good look at the other’s eyes as he continued to speak. “I’ll be merciful. The Inventor requested you deliver a sample from Barrier’s DNA. For his research on our latest commission. You do know about that, right?’

Dorian nodded. “Of course.”

Caesar grinned and sat back, crossing his legs. “Tell me about it.”

“It’s a weapon,” he explained, keeping a close eye on the other man. “Meant to be somehow used against Crocodile. As a means to disable his powers so we can kill him.”

A content hum followed, but Caesar showed no response otherwise. “So you _have_ been paying attention then,” he muttered, placing both his feet on the ground again. “And how does that make you feel?”

Deceit blinked. “Excuse me?”

“Well, you clearly know about Crocodile and our plans to get rid of him,” he explained, resting his elbows on his knees and folding his hands together, for his chin to rest on. “How does that make you feel?”

“I don’t mind,” Dorian lied without batting an eye. “He quit the gang, he asked for it.”

That was another lie. Or at least a half-lie. He _did_ care, and if he could prevent it, or stall for even a little bit, then that would be good. But he also wouldn’t go out of his way to make sure nothing happened. He couldn’t risk his position here, and on top of that, he doubted that Crocodile would do that for him, so why bother? 

“Are you sure?” Caesar asked, leaning a bit closer. Are you sure you’re not working together with him?”

“Quite certain.”

“Where is he?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since he left.”

“Where could he be hiding?”

“I can assure you I don’t know.” Dorian gritted his teeth slightly, getting fed up with Caesar here. It was clear that the other was trying to up the pressure here, and while it was working, right now, it only served to frustrate him more. 

“Are you sure?”

“I am.”

“How sure?”

“Quite.”

In one swift movement, Caesar got up again, taking a few steps closer to Dorian’s seat, staring at the man as he did so, walking around his chair until he was standing behind him, arms leaning on the armrests, almost encircling Dorian. 

“We don’t have to call in Dragon?” he asked softly, whispering the words in Dorian’s ear. “I’m sure she wouldn’t mind.” One hand came up to lightly brush against the skin on the left side of Dorian’s face. The scars of past burns were still visible. 

“Call her in all you want,” he said, involuntarily flinching away from the man’s touch. He didn’t mind many things, but that… was something he hated. Invading personal space made him uncomfortable, but he could deal with that. But he didn’t… like being touched. Especially not like that, and especially not by anyone like Caesar. It was a really dumb thing to be so fussy about, given the fact that he was in a criminal organisation. It was just something he’d never liked. “I don’t care. Have her burn my entire body, I don’t care. I assure you I am telling the truth.”

This incited another laugh coming from Caesar, still maintaining their close proximity. “I don’t think you ever are, _Deceit_ ,” he whispered lowly. “But you know what? I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. For now. But lie to me one more time and I will promise you, you will be _begging_ for me to kill you when I’m done with you.”

A slight shiver ran over Dorian’s back at those words. He didn’t know what was the cause for that. After all this time in this business, he’s gotten used to threats like these. He couldn’t even count the times someone had threatened to kill him, or even worse. Hell, even Caesar himself had threatened him on multiple occasions. But there was something about this current predicament that just made it… worse. Perhaps it was the fact that he _knew_ Caesar meant it this time. Usually, he would threaten him sure, but he never _really_ meant it. Okay, he did, but he would never go through with it. It was just a tool to scare people. But this time… Dorian knew he was serious. 

Caesar lingered right there for a few seconds, his face barely an inch from Dorian’s, but then he finally pulled away, walking back to his desk, where he turned around to face Dorian once more. “But only this one time,” he said, giving the other man a meaningful look. “I’ve been far too lenient with you. Now go. I’ve got better things to deal with.”

Dorian nodded and got up to leave. As he walked out, Roman’s eyes followed him closely. He would be watching him more carefully in the coming period, trying to see if he was actually working together with Remus or not. And he knew that Deceit was aware of this as well. But there were only so many things a person could see. It would be no trouble. Roman was convinced that, whether Dorian was working together with Crocodile or not, he was hiding _something_. And sooner or later, he was bound to make a mistake. He just had to be there to catch it. 


	7. Don't Feel Quite Right

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: smoking, a bit of arguing, mention of torture/death

The next morning, Virgil woke up at nine to see a number of texts from Remy. 

**_Shady bitch:_ ** _Morning babe_

**_Shady bitch:_ ** _You’re having lunch w me today. God knows you don’t get out ever_

**_Shady bitch:_ ** _Meet me at Lionel’s at 1 xo_

Virgil rolled his eyes at his friend’s texts. Remy really was… a character. They were incredible and Virgil loved them to death, but they were quite the character. There was no way to describe it. He really appreciated their initiative, because, well- they were right. Virgil was not the best at taking care of himself, and if it was up to him, he would really not get out of the house often. Luckily, Virgil had to go to a studio downtown to check on a painting job he was asked to do by a local museum. Some painting that needed to be restored. Since that was in his job description as a conservator. So he would be close to Lionel’s anyways. 

**_You:_ ** _sure thing, got a job downtown anyways so i’ll be there_

When he sent the text, Virgil moved on to the next step: dragging himself out of bed. He still had enough time to get to the studio, as he didn’t need to leave for at least an hour, but he was really hoping to get started on one of the commissions he had lying around. He had the quick sketches done, but he needed to work out the details and finish the products as soon as possible. 

Just as Virgil sat down to start working, his phone buzzed with another text from Remy. 

**_Shady bitch:_ ** _Well nvm that then_

**_Shady bitch:_ ** _I’ll order something and bring it to you_

**_You:_ ** _i can still come over tho. i’ll be close enough_

**_Shady bitch:_ ** _You can’t. I know you too well_

**_Shady bitch:_ ** _You’re gonna be too caught up in your work and arrive an hour late, making me look like an idiot for waiting there for an entire fucking hour and/or making me late for work. I love you, but we’re not going through that again_

**_Shady bitch:_ ** _I swear my boss almost killed me last time. I’d like to avoid that from now on_

**_Shady bitch:_ ** _Just send me address and I’ll come there. I’ll bring the usual (:_

**_You:_ ** _… fair enough_

Virgil sent them the address and didn’t wait for a response, but instead got started with one of the commissions he had waiting for him. Remy was… something. He loved them more than anything, he really did, but they were a unique case. Not always easy to deal with. He knew that they meant well, though, and they did help him… a lot. They hadn’t lied when they said he tended to… forget the time. Especially when working on restoring a painting. He would be so concentrated on the work at hand that he would forget literally everything around him. So maybe it would work better if they just… came to him instead. It _did_ put less pressure on him. 

Soon enough, it was time for Virgil to leave. He took the bus, and walked about five minutes to the workshop where he would be to restore the painting he was hired to work on. 

When Virgil got there, he was greeted by his temporary employer, a young woman, probably just a few years older than he was. Her long blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail and her eyes were hidden behind big sunglasses. She greeted him with a broad smile as he walked up.

“Hey!” she smiled, holding out a hand. “You must be Virgil, right?”

He nodded as he took her hand. “That’s me.”

“It’s so nice to meet you!” She walked around, gesturing for him to follow him. “Come in, I’ll show you around. I’m Alice, by the way.”

Virgil followed Alice into the workshop. It wasn’t a big place, with only a few small rooms and a lot of clutter laying around. There were easels here and there, paints, brushes, and many more things — some not even related to painting. It was a mess, but Virgil wasn’t complaining. He actually liked it that way. 

“And here is your work space for the coming weeks,” Alice announced excitedly as she opened the last door. It opened into a room that was slightly larger than the others. Just like every other room they’d seen, it was covered in equipment. In the back of the room, there was the painting; a portrait of a young woman, dressed in an elaborate, white dress. The painting was probably made somewhere in the 1800s, from the looks of it. It looked amazing, but it was clearly in need of some restoring. Clearly. That’s why Virgil was here. 

“Thank you,” he smiled, turning to Alice. 

“I think you know the deal right?” she asked him. 

“Definitely,” Virgil nodded, before he realised something. “Is it okay if a friend of mine would come over for lunch?”

Alice nodded enthusiastically. “Of course,” she said. “As long as they don’t break anything.”

“I’ll keep an eye on them,” he promised, eliciting an even broader smile from Alice — something he didn’t even think to be possible. 

“Thank you,” she grinned. “Well… I’ll leave you alone, yeah? You two can get to know each other a little.”

Alice then walked away, leaving Virgil alone with the painting. He returned his attention to the work of art, taking in every detail to see what it looked like, to imprint it in his memory. When he felt like he could remember this painting by heart, he turned around, getting some equipment. Better get started and try to get some cleaning done, then.

“Hope I’m not interrupting anything?” A voice called from behind Virgil, pulling him out of his concentration. He flinched slightly, dropping the white cloth in his hand. 

“Would be nice to get a warning in advance,” he said with a smile as he turned around. “I could have ruined the painting, you know?”

Remy grinned at the other. They were wearing their sunglasses, as they always did. Even indoors. “Nice to see you too, Virge,” they nodded, placing the bag with food on the table with the least clutter. “Besides, that _was_ your warning. I don’t think there’s a way to announce myself without scaring the shit out of you, sweetheart.”

Despite rolling his eyes, Virgil stepped forwards and hugged his friend closely. “Shut up,” he mumbled under his breath. 

Remy offered him another grin, their tongue sticking out ever so slightly. “I’m not wrong, though.” Their eyes wandered over to the painting, which wasn’t even half cleaned. “Well, she’s seen better days.”

“Just give me a few weeks,” Virgil smiled as he followed Remy in the direction of the food. He pushed aside some of his materials to make space for the food. “She’ll look good as new.”

“I don’t doubt that.” Remy grabbed one of the chairs and sat down, getting out a bowl with the quinoa salad they had gotten, pushing the bag with all its remaining contents towards Virgil. “By the way, I have to keep an eye on the time. New developments at work, so I need to do some extra working.”

“Sure,” Virgil nodded, getting his lunch — a Cobb salad. “Any chance you can tell me about it?”

He raised an eyebrow, already knowing the answer. Remy was quite secretive about their job, saying that it was classified. Their job involved maintaining contact with a lot of people everywhere, some of them very important. For privacy’s sake, they couldn’t say anything about it. And that included revealing the nature of their job, apparently. Virgil had to admit that he didn’t quite understand that reasoning, but he respected it well enough.

Remy chuckled with a shake of his head. “I’m afraid not, V,” they told him. “I think you know that by now.”

Virgil shrugged with a smile, swallowing the bite of food in his mouth. “It was worth a shot.”

The two of them ate their lunch, talking, joking and generally having a good time. Remy was Virgil’s only friend here. He had one friend back in his hometown, and a few online friends, but Remy was the only friend he could see whenever he felt like it — assuming that their schedules would allow it. Both of their schedules were pretty irregular. Remy’s more than his, since Virgil could usually work whenever he wanted to, unless he had a restoration job, like now. Although getting lunch together was something that always seemed to work. It seemed like most of the times they met, it was over lunch. 

After the two had finished their food, Remy stayed for a little bit, still talking. But eventually, they really had to go. 

“Duty’s calling,” they justified as they got up, taking the bag now filled with trash with them. “I’ll call you as soon as possible. Don’t forget to buy more food if you need it. And for fuck’s sake, go to sleep at a reasonable time for once, you dumbass.”

Virgil laughed to himself as he got up, getting ready to continue cleaning the painting. “I’ll try my best, Rem,” he promised, looking at his friend as they opened the door. 

“That’s as good as I’ll get,” Remy considered. “I’ll take it. Good luck, babe, love ya.”

“Love you too,” Virgil called back as the door closed. Remy was… something. But Virgil was so fucking lucky to be their friend. 

With a smile on his face, he picked up the white cloth again, returning his attention to the painting. Right. Back to work, then. 

Seven pm sharp. Virgil was leaning against a wall, waiting for the supervillain in the exact alley where they met. He was sure this was a trap. That he was going to get himself killed waiting here. But there was a part of him that wanted to trust Crocodile. Even if it was only for the chance that they might be able to get to Caesar together. The organisation’s best assassin, one of its most important members just standing up like that and plotting against their leader, it seemed way too good to be true. But there was a small chance that it was in fact true. And Virgil was holding onto that for his life. Because there was one thing that he had never been able to do, and that was taking out Caesar. Now this man came along, offering him a chance… and he had no choice but to take it. Even if it was ridiculous, even if it was a trap. He had to try. He had no choice. 

It wasn’t long after Virgil arrived that another figure jumped down, looking around. The hero quickly recognized him as the Crocodile. The villain turned around, trying to find the man he had arranged to meet up with, a grin forming on his face as soon as he found him. 

“Sup, Ali,” he smiled, making his way over to the other. “So… what’s the plan?” 

Virgil gave him a small smile in return as he pushed himself up again. “I’ll assume we can’t exactly be seen here,” he started, thinking as he went. The information they were going to discuss was… sensitive. And Caesar was dangerous. They couldn’t have anyone overhear. “We can go to my place, discuss things there.”

It was less than ideal. Having the Crocodile over to his apartment. But what else was he supposed to do? Offer to buy him a coffee? Yeah, like that was going to happen.

In response, the other simply laughed. “Yeah. No. You don’t want that.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Alibi raised an eyebrow, looking at the other man expectantly. It wasn’t a lie; he really didn’t want that. But why did Crocodile say it?

The villain scraped his throat, trying to regain his composure. Yet he still looked at Virgil with a smile on his face. “Nothing personal, but Caesar-boy has eyes and ears everywhere,” he explained calmly. “Chances are he already knows I showed my face again. _If_ he does, and he or any of his goons see me entering or leaving your place, he knows I’m working with you and where you live. You’re dead and I’m no closer to killing him. That’s not happening.”

“I give you my address, go back home and you follow later.”

Crocodile made an error-sound as response. “Someone still might see me enter or leave. Even if they don’t know you’re Alibi, they’ll wanna come after you, because of me. Don’t underestimate them. We’re going to one of mine.”

Virgil coughed, looking at the man in front of him. Was he actually right about this? Did he mishear, or did he actually say… “ _One_ of yours?”

“I’ve got a couple addresses that not even Caesar knows about,” he explained with a simple shrug. “Where else do you think I’ve been spending these past weeks? We’ll be safe to discuss our shit there.”

“Can I trust you?” This sounded like a bad idea. Going to the house of someone he _knew_ to be not only a villain, but a fucking murderer at that. Going to a house that was secret from even fucking Caesar himself. The guy who almost ran this city didn’t even know about the address they’d be going to. That was dangerous to say the least. If this was a horror movie, audiences would be screaming at him not to take the very obvious bait laid out by the killer. But this wasn’t a horror movie, so… should he? Should he take the bait?

“You will have to if you wanna end Caesar’s reign of terror,” Crocodile shrugged. “I can tell you one thing, though. If I wanted to kill you, you would be long dead. I’m not an idiot.”

With a sigh, Virgil moved to pinch the bridge of his nose. His gut was telling him that this was wrong and dumb and he was going to die. But his gut had made mistakes before. His gut could make mistakes, but he didn’t know if it was making a mistake right now. 

“Fine,” he said, making a split-second decision. “What the hell? Let’s do it.”

The villain gave him a grin, as if he had already expected this outcome. “Perfect.” He reached into his black boot and got a small paper out of it, reaching it out for Virgil to grab. “This is the address. I’ll leave as soon as this is done, you wait a bit. Come invisible, knock five times, I’ll know it’s you. Got it?”

Virgil nodded as he took the paper with two fingers. “Got it,” he muttered, reading the address. “I’ll be there in an hour?”

“See you then.”

After that exchange, Virgil went on patrol for an hour before warily heading over to the address the Crocodile had given him. He typed the address on the small screen of his watch, that was still visible in the middle of all his suit. Soon enough, the route appeared on the screen in his glasses, giving him a real-time update of the route he had to take to get to the address. The route, while showing the roads he had to follow, as if it was a car gps, was only an indication, seeing as Virgil could normally fly to wherever he had to go. Which obviously meant he didn’t need to follow the actual road. But it was still nice to have an idea of where the hell he had to go. Especially if it was a place he’d never been. 

Virgil flew over to the address on the paper, staying invisible, as Crocodile had advised. It wasn’t a long trip; the house was located on the edge of the town, about fifteen minutes flying. It could have been done in even less than that, but Virgil was more focussed on going the right direction rather than maintaining his topspeed. 

Nevertheless, he made it to the address. After looking around and doing his best to ensure that no one was looking at the house, Virgil made his way to the door and knocked five times, waiting until the door was opened. Just a small crack, as to not seem suspicious. Virgil pushed the door open himself, just enough to step inside the small house.

He looked at the man on the other side of the door. Said man — Crocodil, obviously — had hazel eyes, brown hair with a silver streak here and there, and a moustache. His hair was still messy, as if he had just taken off his mask. An explanation that didn’t seem too unlikely, since he was still wearing his suit. 

“Welcome to my humble abode,” the Crocodile grinned, gesturing around him, holding an unlit cigarette in his right hand. “I hope you don’t mind me having a smoke in here.” As he spoke, he, already got out a lighter to light his cigarette. “This shit requires some stress relief.”

Virgil shrugged, looking at the other man with a look of mild disgust. He hated smoking. “I kind of do, but I don’t feel like you’d care.” 

The other man let out a chuckle at this, pointing at Virgil with the two fingers holding his cigarette. “You know what? You have a point,” he grinned, taking a drag. “I like you, Ali. Whatever your real name is. I feel like I should know. Have a seat, by the way.”

He pointed at a kitchen table, choosing to sit down on the counter himself, pulling his legs up with him. Virgil nodded as he sat down on one of the chairs, the mask retracting itself at his mental command. It left behind only the glasses, which Virgil promptly took off. He still felt uncomfortable with this, but he knew Crocodile’s face… only fair is he revealed himself as well. Revealing his name though...

“Look at that, he _does_ have a face,” Crocodile called out with a teasing grin, opening a window next to him. “I’m Remus, by the way. If that makes things easier. I can see you don’t wanna tell me.”

Virgil scoffed. About right. You know what? What the hell. He was going to risk it. “Virgil.”

At this, Crocodile- Remus, let out a soft laugh, taking another drag of his cigarette, turning his head so he could blow the smoke outside. Was that because Virgil said he minded him smoking? That would be… awfully considerate. 

“Your parents were as big mythology nerds as mine?”

“My dad.”

Another laugh from Remus. “My mom. You wanna know what’s even worse?” He looked at Virgil, waiting for any sort of response. When Virgil raised his eyebrow expectantly, he took this as a silent urge to continue. “I have a twin. Roman. Guess Romulus was too out there. For some fucking reason. And our last name? Silver.”

Virgil frowned slightly. “What’s the deal with that?”

“You know the myth of Romulus and Remus right?” Virgil nodded. “Their mom’s name is Rhea fucking Silvia. Silver’s not too far off, so… you get it. Mom was a fucking nerd. You'd almost think she fucked my dad on purpose.”

It was strange. Having a casual conversation like this with Crocodile. They fought in the past, he knew Crocodile was a murderer, and yet… they were sitting here, masks off, talking about the origin of their names. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, it was just a very, _very_ weird realisation. 

“Anyways,” Remus decided, slapping his free hand against his thigh. “Caesar. Tell me what you know about him.”

Virgil blinked, having to take a second to make the switch from smalltalk to business. Right. The reason he was here. Caesar. “I don’t know anything in depth,” he said with a shrug. “Mostly the things everyone knows. You know, the Red Gang, Red Bandit, Dragontooth. Although, I am fairly sure that he’s connected to the Thornwall Labs, but I keep hitting dead ends on that one. And I’m confident he’s got people in the police, but then again, I don’t know who or where. He’s probably got people everywhere, to be fair.”

“You’d be surprised,” Crocodile muttered as he brought the cigarette to his lips again. “You’re not wrong, though. On any of those things.” He took another drag of his cigarette, blowing the smoke out of the window with a soft chuckle. “I remember Thornwall. You got pretty close a few times. Ruined an experiment, too. Pissed off the big guy _real_ bad.”

Virgil laughed softly, finding a certain sense of satisfaction in this news. So he pissed of Caesar? Good. Serves him right. “Did I now?”

“Oh, you sure did,” Remus said, a small smile on his face as he remembered the incidents. It wasn’t an incident that most people in the organisation cherished, but Remus? He loved seeing his brother pissed off. It was amusing in a strange way. Just to him. Everyone else in the organisation dreaded seeing him in a state like that. Remus lived for it. “Though to be fair, that’s not difficult. Man has a temper, first of all. And he also hates you with a fiery passion. Very fiery, might I add. It’s kind of weird how much he hates you...”

“Weird how?”

Remus bit his lip, looking at the window as he tried to think of a way to phrase this. “Let’s just say… he’s got a whole plan of what he’s going to do with you once he finds out who you really are. And believe me when I say it’s _bad_ ,” he explained, taking a brief moment to take a drag of his cigarette. “I should know. I gave him most of those ideas. So, if you’re attached to your friends, family, fingernails, eyeballs, sanity… et cetera, make sure he doesn’t find out who you are.”

“Oh. Great,” Virgil muttered, trying not to linger too much on the thought about how Caesar was planning on torturing him once he found out his identity. That wasn’t remotely horrifying. Maybe a change of subject wouldn’t be uncalled for. “Anyways- tell me about Caesar.”

“Right,” the other nodded, wrapping his free arm around his legs to pull his knees just a bit closer. “There’s a few things you should know about him. First thing: the twin, I mentioned, Roman? That’s him. Roman Silver. That’s the bastard’s actual name. Of course, no one calls him that but me. He insists on being called Caesar, like the dramatic prick he is.” He finished his statement with another drag of his cigarette, looking outside for a moment as if he was lost in thoughts. He surely couldn’t be looking at anything, at least, since it was pitch black outside. 

Virgil just gave a quick nod, remembering this name. Roman Silver. He didn’t know how much this would help him in the long run, but knowing the name of his enemy was useful at the very least. At least he had some idea of who he was fighting — even if that idea was hardly anything. Just a name to a faceless person. But a name nonetheless. 

"The second thing,” Remus continued, turning his head to look at Virgil directly now, "he likes being in control. And he's paranoid as shit. He's got plans for almost anything. Like capturing you, for example. So, our goal is to act in such a way that he'll never expect it and won't have a plan for it. That way, he'll be unprepared." He paused for just a second, before adding: "And pissed off. What more could you wish for, right?"

“Right.” Alibi lifted his hand to bite the back of his hand — a habit he’d picked up a few years ago and he’d never been able to stop — but he soon enough realised he was still wearing his suit, so he dropped the hand in his lap again. “Anything else you can tell me about him?”

“I can tell you his entire life story if I wanted,” Remus said, continuing to smoke his cigarette. “Comes with the twin thing, you know? I happen know him rather well, strangely enough. Almost as if we grew up together or something.” Virgil rolled his eyes at this comment and opened his mouth to speak up when the Crocodile continued. “You know, he used to be pretty okay up until middle school, actually. Somewhere around high school, that’s when he really turned into a dick. Started his edgy phase and I guess he never got over it. I see you haven’t either.”

Virgil rolled his eyes again and flipped Remus off, giving him half a glare. But even though Remus pissed him off… he couldn’t say he wasn’t curious to hear a little more about Caesar. “What do you mean?”

“Did you know… our little old Caesar salad used to be a _good guy_?” Remus continued, leaning forwards a bit as he spoke. “Sure, it was ages ago, but still. Used to be one of the guys to actually stand up to bullies and assholes. It just got him into trouble, and eventually… it became a tad bit for his poor little soul to handle. So he turned away. Turned ‘survival of the fittest’ into his motto and he became intent on becoming the fittest. So he slowly turned into more of a dick. Then he got his powers and turned into the man we all know and hate. Really a tragic backstory, isn’t it? Oh well, we all have our little demons don’t we?”

Virgil scoffed. “Even you?”

At this, Remus maintained eye contact with the hero and grinned, taking another drag. “You’d be surprised,” he simply responded in a way that made Virgil question if he was telling the truth. “And how about you? Whatever could lead to you deciding to fight crime in a city like _this_? Murdered parents? Childhood trauma? A corrosive sense of guilt gnawing at your poor little soul?”

He had a curious grin on his face that just elicited a sigh from the other. “How about ‘I saw crime rates were getting out of control and felt the need to do something about it’? Does that work as an answer?”

Remus rolled his eyes as he took a last drag of his cigarette. “Boring,” he huffed. “Come on, nothing? No bad relationship with your parents? No trauma? No chip on your shoulder?”

“My relationship with my parents is fine, thank you,” Virgil huffed. A lie — they weren’t the most accepting of the LGBT-community and Virgil had barely seen them since he moved here from the other side of the country to study art, wanting to avoid their judgement. But it was not the tragic backstory Remus was so desperately looking for. However, this conversation had been going on for far too long already. Virgil wasn't going to share his entire life story with this _villain_. It wasn’t any of his business. Besides, there were more important matters at hand. “So, what’s the plan?” he asked, quickly changing the subject. “How do we take Caesar down?”

Remus shrugged. “Not sure yet,” he simply said as he pushed the cigarette against his hand, effectively extinguishing it. 

At this, Virgil raised an eyebrow, looking at the other man sceptically. “You don’t know?” he asked incredulously. “You come to me, asking for help, and then you turn around and say you have no idea what to actually do?”

“I said I’m not sure _yet_ , airhead,” Crocodile hissed as he dropped the cigarette next to him, turning around to close the window. “Learn to listen closer, yeah? I’ve been out of the loop for a few weeks, so I need to get caught up with their plans first. I’ve got a guy for that. I just needed to be sure you’d help me. I’m not going to make up a plan if I’m not sure you’re gonna be there for it, right? Besides, _you_ were the one that was so eager to meet up, not me.”

Virgil rolled his eyes. “You could’ve said that, you know? When we spoke yesterday. There was nothing stopping you.” 

Remus jumped down from the counter with a soft huff. “I didn’t know what you were planning to do,” he said, trying to defend himself. Because obviously, it wasn’t his fault. 

“Sure. If that’s all...”

If he was being honest… Virgil just wanted to call it quits right here. If there was no concrete plan… then what the hell was his reason for being here? He wanted to patrol the city for a few more hours, make sure nothing weird happened, and then go home. If there was no concrete plan, he was just wasting time. Not to mention that he didn’t want to spend more time with this guy than he absolutely had to. 

“Keep an eye on Brand Tower tomorrow,” Remus suggested as he opened one of the drawers in the kitchen counter, getting out a notebook and pen — why the hell would he keep those in a drawer in the fucking kitchen counter? — and walked over to Virgil, putting them on the table. “And write down your number. I’ll call you when I’ve got more.”

“Brand Tower?” Virgil questioned as he picked up the pen, ready to write down his phone number. “Why?”

“Because they’re gonna have a tea party there,” he explained cynically. “Why the fuck do you think?”

Virgil let out a huff of frustration. Was this guy literally incapable of explaining anything? “I don’t know,” he said slowly, as to not lash out too much. “Why the fuck do _you_ think I asked?”

Remus rolled his eyes and sat down on top of the table, opposite Virgil, who was starting to wonder why this man owned any chairs as he hadn’t seen him actually sit down on one of them so far. “Look, just do it,” he said, resting his feet on one of the chairs. “The organisation spends a lot of time there. I need you to look out for someone.”

“Who?”

“Will you let me _finish_?” Remus gave the hero an annoyed glare. “I’ll text you a picture tomorrow. Gotta get a new phone first. They know my number over at the organisation so I’ll have to get a burner. When I have that, I’ll contact you.”

“Sure, anything I need to know about the guy?” Virgil closed the notebook and pushed it aside, scooting his chair back so he could look at Remus better without having to twist his neck in impossible positions. 

“Yeah, don’t engage,” the other replied briefly. “They might not be as strong as you are, but their powers can cancel out yours. They _will_ take you in without hesitation. If you see them entering or leaving the building, let me know when. If they aren’t there by eleven, tell me and you can leave. I just need to know if they’re on duty.”

“Do I get to know who they are or what they do?” Virgil was confident that he already knew the answer, but he figured that there was no harm in trying anyways. 

“Not yet.” Was the quick response. Just like Virgil had predicted. “Gotta wait for tomorrow first.”

“Whatever.” The hero pushed his chair back and got up. “If that’s all… I’ll take my leave.”

Remus raised an eyebrow, giving the other a teasing grin. “You’re in a hurry.”

Virgil simply shrugged. “Just have other things to take care of,” he defended himself. “So if we’re done…”

“I know, I know,” Crocodile said with a chuckle. “You can go. I’ll text you the picture tomorrow.”

Virgil put on his glasses again and the mask quickly formed itself around his head. “Cool. I’ll see what I can do.”

Without another word, he walked towards the front door. In all honesty, he couldn’t wait to get out of this place. Nothing personal, but he just felt like he couldn’t stand to spend another moment with Remus. He was- something else. And Virgil didn’t know if he liked him or not. 

“Don’t forget to turn invisible,” aforementioned Remus called from behind Virgil, who already had his hand on the doorknob. Right. He’d completely forgotten about that. He completely forgot about his own powers, which he’d had for years now. Where would be be without Remus’ help?

“Of course,” he said, doing exactly that before opening the door and getting out. He once again used his powers to lift him up into air and fly back to the city centre, where he could patrol for a bit more until he’d crash.


	8. Break it to Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: minor character death, guns, murder

**_Unknown:_ ** _Its Dee. We need to speak_

**_Unknown shared a location_ **

**_Unknown:_ ** _Meet me at eleven_

Remus frowned at the text seemingly sent by Dorian. He wouldn’t doubt it, but he needed to be sure. Things were too dangerous to trust any random unknown number that texted him. Luckily, they had a way of figuring out who the other was. 

**_You:_ ** _Octopus_

**_Unknown:_ ** _Snake_

**_You:_ ** _Why did the crocodile cross the road_

**_Unknown:_ ** _Because he’s an idiot who pissed off his brother and needed to skip town_

**_You:_ ** _Good to see you too Dee_

**_You:_ ** _I’ll be there :)_

Okay, so… he could trust this. Probably. It definitely sounded like Dorian, and he was confident that others wouldn’t get what he was trying to say here. The guy behind the other phone was probably Dorian. And if he wasn’t… Remus would be prepared regardless. Besides, it wouldn’t hurt to stop by and take a look. He needed to make a pit stop at Best Buy for a new phone anyway, so he’d be in town. At the very least that would mean he didn’t go all the way to the city for nothing, even if Dee would be luring him into a trap. 

Remus went out early to get himself a new burner phone before anything else. It was a risk, going out like this, but at this point, anything was. It was a race against the clock because even he couldn’t hide from the organisation for ever. He just had to make sure he was ready before the time ran out. He could handle himself in a fair fight, he knew that much. And so did Roman. What he _also_ knew, was that Roman wasn’t one to play fair. Unfortunately, Roman knew his weaknesses and he wouldn’t hesitate to use those to his advantage. In other words; Remus needed to be aware. He couldn’t let Roman win this one. He simply refused.

It was just one quick trip outside to Best Buy. Remus knew exactly what he needed, so he got the phone he had his eyes set on and left. He paid the $30 he owed in cash — obviously; Roman would know if he used his card — and went his merry way. 

Before he went back to the cottage he’d been staying at for the past two weeks, he stopped by at the alley that alleged-Dorian had texted him this morning. Upon closer inspection, there was no one there yet, so he just… had to wait. It wasn’t ideal, to have to wait for the other — Dorian, supposedly — to show up. Made him feel like it was a trap. But nevertheless, he wanted to believe that this was really his friend who wanted to meet him. So he stayed. He stayed near the back of the alley where he could stay fairly hidden. His back was pressed to the wall so no one could surprise him. 

It wasn’t long before someone approached, walking into the alley. A single glance could tell Remus who it was. It was in the way he walked, the way he carried himself. But most remarkable where the marks of old burn on the left side of his face, that were just visible even though the man tried to his his face. This had to be Dorian. 

“Nice to see you again, Dee,” Remus greeted his friend as he stepped forwards. “Almost thought you’d forgotten about me.”

“I don’t think I could, even if I tried.” The other returned quickly.

“Is that a compliment?”

Dorian paused for a second. “I don’t know what it is.”

Remus chuckled and looked at the other in amusement. “Let’s make it quick, shall we?” he asked, clapping his hands together. “You had something to tell me?”

“Yes,” Dorian nodded. “But not here. We need somewhere safe.”

Of course. That made sense. Safety before anything. “I’ll give you an address,” Remus said without hesitation, his mind immediately starting to work. “Come by this afternoon, around four. I’ll be-” He stopped when he saw something in the corner of his eye. Movement on top of one of the roofs around them. “Son of a bitch.”

“What?” 

“I’ll be right back.” Without a single delay, Remus jumped up, his superhuman strength allowing him to jump higher than seemed possible. He was able to grab onto the ledge of the roof and pulled himself up easily. 

Once on the roof, Crocodile could see someone trying to run away. They were dressed in black, a camera dangling around their neck. “Oh no, you don’t,” he hissed as he lunged forwards, tackling the person to the ground. They tried to struggle but Remus managed to keep them pinned to the ground with a single knee pressing down on their chest. It wasn’t even difficult for him. His skin had at this point turned into its steel-like state, so even if they tried anything, there wasn’t much they could do. It wouldn’t hurt him.

He easily yanked the camera away from the person below him and checked the pictures. “Well, what do we have here?” Remus asked, seeing a few pictures of Dorian walking across the street, followed by one picture of himself waiting in the alley, just a few minutes ago. Lastly, there were a couple of pictures of him talking to Dorian. “Hey, that’s me!” He ignored the soft protests coming from below him. There was a vague sensation of movement, signalling that the person tried to get away from him. They were obviously no match for him, though. Remus simply pushed his knee down with a little more force. He was sure that he was one step away from cracking a couple ribs. “Ah- shit, I blinked on this one, I’m sorry. That just won’t do.”

Remus deleted all the pictures of him and Dorian, before crushing the camera in his hand. “Now let’s see,” he muttered, turning to the person below him. “Who are we dealing with here?”

Despite their protests, he easily could push their head to the side and pull down the collar of their shirt, revealing the right side of their neck. There, he saw a tattoo, shaped like a single dragonwing. A member of the Dragontooth, then. Just like he expected. 

“I’m truly sorry,” he lied with a fake pout as he reached into his boot. “I can’t have you blabbing to our great and glorious overlord, can I?” He pulled out a pocket pistol and aimed it between the eyes of the person below him. “Any last words?”

“Please, let-” 

“Too late.” Remus shot them a final smile before pulling the trigger. They went limp almost immediately. Serves them right. Fucking snitch. It was a shame that Remus got their blood everywhere, though. But it was the best way. The quickest, mostly.

Crocodile hid the pistol in his boot again before walking back to the edge of the roof and jumping down into the alley, where Dorian was still hiding — albeit slightly out of sight for safety’s sake. 

“What was that?” he asked as he saw his friend jumping down. 

“I could ask you the same thing,” Remus retorted, a slight snap to his voice. “Was that guy with you?” 

“What?” It was clear that Dorian did not understand half of this situation, but Remus knew better than to trust him so blindly. He was a good liar; he might be pretending. 

“The guy. On the roof. They were taking pictures,” Remus explained briefly, staring at Dorian in an attempt to gauge a reaction. “Were they with you? Is this one of Roman’s traps?”

His mind was racing a thousand miles an hour. It could be a trap set up for him by Roman. Dorian could simply be a pawn, because Roman knew that Remus would respond if it was Dorian who asked to meet him. But it could also be that Dorian was innocent in this. Maybe he was being followed by someone without his knowledge. Remus just didn’t know what was the truth and if he had any chance of getting it, he needed to do that right now.

“I have nothing to do with this,” Deceit said with a shake of his head. 

Remus raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure?”

Dorian rolled his eyes, noting just how similar the two siblings were in their behaviour. “I know nothing about this, I swear, he pressed. For once, he was telling the truth. He just needed Remus to believe him. It wasn’t that he was scared or stressed, he just… needed his friend to trust him on this. 

There was a brief pause, and Remus stared into Dorian’s eyes. Trying to find a hint of deception, anything that would give something away. Even if he couldn’t find anything. It was just a question of… did he trust Dorian? Generally speaking, he didn’t, but... 

“Fine,” Remus finally sighed. “I believe you. Just… Obsidian Lane 1755. That’s my address. Be there around four. Make sure you’re not followed this time around. I’ll be waiting. Now get out of here, people will be arriving soon.”

Dorian nodded. “I will. See you then.” 

Without another word, he turned around, leaving the alley without looking back. At the same time, Remus jumped up to one of the roofs so he could leave without being seen with Dorian. Then, he went back home so he could take of everything that still needed to happen.

A soft knock sounded on the door, followed by yet another a second later. That had to be Dorian. Nevertheless, Remus was cautious when he opened the door. One never knew what could have happened since their last contact. Luckily, when he opened the door, he could see his good ol’ pal Dorian Vera. No one else in sight. 

“Good,” he breathed, opening the door a little bit more, so that Dorian could come in. “You weren’t followed?” 

“I made sure of it,” Dorian responded with a simple nod as he got in. 

Remus hummed, but still cast a glance outside to be sure there was no one out of place. He loved Dorian, but one could never be sure if he had a double agenda or not. You could never tell what was really going on in his head. 

Luckily, there was nothing out of place, as far as Remus could tell. And he’d spent the past few months paying close attention to his surroundings wherever he went, so the moment something was off, he’d be able to tell. Call him paranoid, but he didn’t want to be caught off guard.

“So, how’s life under Caesar?” Crocodile asked as he walked towards the fridge. He got out a bottle of wine and two glasses. There weren’t any wine glasses, so regular glasses would have to do. 

Dorian shrugged as he walked into what had to be the living room, taking a seat in an armchair. “Same old, same old,” he said simply. “I did almost get myself killed, but… what’s new?”

“Did you now?” Remus raised an eyebrow in amusement as he made his way into the living room. “Do tell me more.”

He handed Dorian one of the glasses and took a seat oh the armrest of the couch. The other man cast one look at the glass in his hand, but decided not to question it. He’d seen weirder things. Especially coming from Remus. And hey… wine was wine.

“It’s to do with what I wanted to talk to you about, really,” Dorian said, taking a sip of his drink. “Caesar commissioned The Inventor to make a weapon for you.”

Of course he did. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise to Remus that sooner or later, Roman would come up with something. He did want him dead, after all. And impenetrable skin made that a little difficult. “Do tell me more,” he commented slyly, raising the glass. “What has my dearest brother planned for me?”

“As far as I know, it’s going to be a gun,” Dorian started to explain. “I received a message from The Inventor a few days ago. He wanted a sample of Barrier’s DNA for his experiments. So what I’m guessing is that it’s supposed to disable your abilities to get a shot in.”

“So, it’s gonna be Marsh, then,” Remus muttered, more a mental note to himself than a comment to Dorian. If it was going to be a gun, then the chances of Jamie Marsh being the one assigned the job of killing him were high. The man had impeccable aim; he could throw a paper airplane at a target and hit dead center. He never missed. On a job as important as this, they needed the best of the best. And that was Marsh. “So then. Where does the killing you come in?”

“I didn’t deliver the sample,” he simply answered, taking another sip. “I thought I could stall things, fill you in on their plans first, but I couldn’t track you down. Then Caesar goes and visits him all of a sudden and I’m screwed.”

“Aww you tried to protect me?” Remus cooed with a teasing grin. “Who knew Dorian Vera would have a heart?”

Dorian grumbled under his breath. “Shut up,” he muttered with a glare. “I just…”

“You care about me, admit it.”

“Don’t make me regret it,” Deceit responded softly, taking another sip of wine. “Either way. He summons me and has this entire charade of trying to get something out of me. I’m pretty sure he’s convinced I’m working with you at this point. For some reason, he lets me off, though. So… now I’m here.”

“I do appreciate you trying to help out, though,” Crocodile said with a wink. “We’ll have to keep an eye on that, then. Let me know if the weapon’s ever finished, yeah?”

“Will do. Do you have any plans what to do? I mean… you can’t run from him forever.”

“Oh yeah, I got it all worked out,” Remus said with a confident nod. “I mean… I’ve got it almost worked out. Kind of. I think I’ve convinced Alibi to work together as a last resort. That will help me take out the old man.”

Deceit raised his eyebrows at this comment. “Alibi?” he asked, wanting to make sure he didn’t mishear. Was Remus _actually_ working together with this man? He couldn’t be… right? 

“Yep,” Remus said, popping his ‘p’ as he put down the glass on the table. “We’ve formed a temporary alliance to take down the great tyrant.”

“Are you sure that’s wise?” Dorian asked, tilting his head slightly. “You don’t know anything about this guy.”

Remus made a soft noise of protest. “Actually… we’ve talked. Exchanged names and faces, and all. I think it can work.”

Now, this caught Dorian’s attention. He knew who Alibi was? That was a mystery even he hadn’t managed to crack. So knowing that Remus knew him… that was interesting. Opened up a lot of possibilities as well. “You know who he is?” 

“I do,” the other nodded. “And _no_ , I’m not telling you.”

“What?”

“I know that look in your eyes, Dee,” he explained, pointing at his friend slightly. “You see an opportunity. And no way I’m going to talk. I love you, but there's no guarantee that you're not going to tell this to Roman. And I can't risk allowing my ally to get tortured to insanity by Ro-Ro, because if he talks — and trust me, he _will_ — that will compromise me as well. So I'm not telling you his name."

Dorian frowned at his friend. “Do you really think I’d do that?” He wasn’t necessarily hurt, or insulted, or anything. Confused would be a better word to describe what he was feeling. 

"Come on,” Remus said with a slight scoff. “Admit it, did _you_ ever fully trust me?"

This question was followed by a moment of silent consideration. Did Dorian ever trust Remus? If he was being honest… he didn’t know. It had never been much of an issue for him. Being in this organisation for so long, doubting people became second nature. Someone could always turn their back on you. Someone could always be assigned to kill you if you acted out of line and no one would refuse that job, no matter how much you liked each other. 

“I don’t know,” he finally decided with a sigh, looking up at Remus. 

“See?” Remus exclaimed, leaning forwards a bit. “That’s what I mean! We don't work on trust. That's why we work so well. Unfortunately, it also means I can’t tell you about Ali until I have a guarantee you’re on my side."

“When will that be?” Dorian asked, crossing his arms. 

“I’m not sure. I love you, Dee, truly, but that’s how this works.”

“No, I get it. No worries.” They had a weird kind of friendship going on. It was… somewhat of a friendship but it wasn’t built on mutual trust or anything of the kind. They both knew they didn’t quite trust each other and they accepted it, because that’s the kind of world they lived in. What was trust worth anyway?


	9. Looking for You Out There

**_Unknown:_ ** _ It’s Remus  _

**_Unknown has shared an image_ **

**_Unknown:_ ** _ This is the guy _

**_You:_ ** _ anything I need to know?  _

**_Unknown:_ ** _ Name’s Barrier. They’re not much of a fighter and more involved in the human experiment branch. Like Thornwall  _

**_Unknown:_ ** _ BUT they do have the power of creating shields. Can work for protection, but they can also cancel out powers so whatever you do, don’t engage. Just let me know if they’re on duty  _

**_You:_ ** _ will do. any reason why? _

**_Unknown:_ ** _ I need to know if they’re on duty. I’m out of the loop when it comes to the organisation so I need to know what page they’re on. Tends to come in handy when making plans.  _

That night, Virgil took up his position on a roof opposite Brand Tower, using his powers to turn invisible, so he could keep watch like he had told Remus. He couldn’t help but feel like he was wasting time that he could spend patrolling the city and making sure nothing else was going on anywhere. But if Remus needed him to keep watch… sure. 

He had connected his phone to his suit so he could transfer the picture he had received. His glasses had many features, and facial recognition was one of them. So once he had transferred the picture to the small database in his watch, he could simply turn on facial recognition to look out for this Barrier-guy. That would make his life a little bit easier, as it meant he didn’t have to be on guard the entire time. And he couldn’t miss them. 

As it turned out, to no one’s surprise, waiting sucked. There wasn’t much to do and Virgil needed to pay attention, or at least keep his eyes on the tower so his facial recognition could do its thing. It probably took up about two hours of his day. He arrived a little past seven, and a little past nine, his facial recognition picked up on something. Barrier, obviously.

Virgil quickly took a couple of pictures and then picked the one where they were the most clearly visible to send to Remus. 

**_You have shared an image_ **

**_You:_ ** _ found them _

**_You:_ ** _ they left the building  _

**_Unknown:_ ** _ Neat, thanks  _

He still didn’t quite understand what Remus wanted. He said it had to do with his plans and all, but refused to give any more details than that. Quite honestly, Virgil didn’t like that. How was he supposed to work together with someone if he didn’t seem to trust him enough to tell what he was planning? How was he supposed to assess the situation and determine if this as an alliance worth keeping around? How was he supposed to do  _ anything  _ if his so-called ally didn’t tell him the things he needed to know? He truly didn’t understand how Remus worked, but he decided to just shrug it off for now. He could always ask later. If all went well, they could finish the job soon enough and then, he’d be able to break all ties with the Crocodile and go back to his life, pretending that this never happened in the first place. Oh, he couldn’t wait until that moment finally arrived. 

**_You:_ ** _ thats all you need right? _

**_Unknown:_ ** _ That’s all _

Virgil didn’t bother responding to that. He had done what he had been asked, so now he could go back to his regular business and go around the city to keep the streets as safe as possible. 

However, being here in front of Brand Tower… He looked at the large building in front of him. Caesar had to be in there. He just knew it. Somewhere inside of that enormous tower was the man who kept this city in terror, hiding it under a thin veil of ‘safety’ from the gangs. Somewhere, in one of the rooms in that tower sat a man who had murdered dozens of people, simply by his touch. And he’d killed even more by his words, ordering the other members of the organisation around. One of the worst men the underworld had to offer was potentially inside of that building and Virgil was just a few feet away.

He could go in. Turn invisible and explore the tower, trying to find even the slightest hint of Caesar’s presence. There would be other villains inside, but that was simply a bonus. He could take them. Or he could fly past the building, checking the windows to the rooms inside. Caesar was Remus’ twin, right? So all he had to do was find someone who looked like him.

It had been ages since he had been on an actually mission like that. Sure, keeping the people on the street safe was important and the direct payoff of seeing those people’s relief and gratefulness was rewarding, but there were other heroes out there who could do that. And how could he guarantee safety if Caesar and his people were just allowed to do their thing without consequences? They could kidnap, hurt and kill as many people as they wanted without getting punished for it. They had people everywhere; no one would go after them. Virgil had to do it and he was  _ here _ . 

But as tempting as it was, he also realised that doing that could endanger the plans he was trying to make with Remus. Or- the plans Remus was trying to make, rather. If anything went wrong while he was inside… 

Virgil had always known that getting caught by Caesar would be dangerous. He always knew Caesar would kill him if he got the chance. And Remus not only confirming that, but adding that getting captured would essentially mean getting tortured for as long as he could bear it and even beyond that… that made the situation all the more serious. Getting captured would mean willingly signing up to his own personal hell. It was a risk. And definitely one he was willing to take for the sake of the town. But this alliance with Remus could give him a chance bigger than any chance he’d ever had before. And going in by himself right now could throw all of that away in the blink of an eye. As much as he hated to say it, working together with Remus was his best shot. 

He threw another look at the large tower. Surely, getting a look from the outside wouldn’t hurt anyone, right? 

No- no, he needed to leave. Virgil knew that, if he took a look, he would be tempted to go in. If he managed to get a look at Caesar, he would want to kick the man’s ass into oblivion. He couldn’t have that right now. He’d get his chance later, Virgil told himself. But for now… he had other things to do. 

Finally, Virgil turned around and left without even casting another look at the tower. Instead, he turned invisible and flew off, deciding to start his patrol on the east side of town for once, a part he hadn’t been to too much in the past few days. So, he reasoned it was time for him to check it out again. Brand could come later. Caesar could come later. All in due time. 


	10. www.heroic-crimefighting-updates.com

_ Hey guys! _

_ So… things have been happening lately, haven’t they? I heard that someone has been found dead in the city, allegedly a member of the Dragontooth gang. I don’t know how much of this is true, but it might very well be. What this means, I don’t know, but I have heard a lot of horror stories about what this might mean and I wanna talk about why I think most of those are very likely to be wrong. All this assuming that, indeed, a member of the Dragontooth has been killed. _

_ I want to talk specifically about one story that claims the murder was committed by the Red Gang, and that the gang war they’ve had going on years ago is going to start up again. I think this is unlikely. Why? Easy. It’s only one person. Only one person was killed, in the morning. It happened on the roof of one of the buildings in the city.  _

_ First of all, I think it’s unlikely that there is a gang war going on. Both the Red Gang and the Dragontooth, while they clashed regularly a couple of years ago, are now in a sort of truce. Both of them are, seemingly, in leagues with Caesar. Ever since they started dealing with him, the chaos in town stopped. The only reason for the war between them to start up again, would be if only of them stopped dealing with Caesar. And I think that’s unlikely, because working with someone as powerful as him is hugely beneficial for them.  _

_ On top of that, it’s only one person found dead. Now, I’m not a gang member or involved in crime in any way other than this blog, but I would say that just killing one person is not that efficient. Yes, they can still kill more people later on, but it’s been a few days since the killing happened. They’ve had more time to kill people and they haven’t. If I was the Red Gang, I would want to make a statement to show that we were… back, you know? That we were out killing again. And besides, the Dragontooth hasn’t killed anyone either as revenge.  _

_ Another argument against this, in the same line of thought, is the fact that the body was found on the roof. It wasn’t a coincidental murder, or a random shooting on the street. I mean… how many people regularly walk on the roof, right? This had to be planned. I’m fairly certain. Besides, on the roof it won’t be easy to find the body. Which… considering my argument from before, doesn’t make a good statement. If you want to make a statement to let people know you’re back… it would be better to leave the body in a public place. In the city centre or in the middle of the Grand Park, maybe. Not on top of some random roof. _

_ Either way, to me, it seems unlikely that there is a gang war about to start again. Of course, I could be wrong, but I doubt it. I do think there’s a big chance something is going on, but I don’t think we need to fear for another situation like all those years ago. I think we’re safe for now. At least, regarding the gang war-question, that is. _

_ As always, thank you guys so for reading this! I love you all very very much, until the next time <3 _

_ \- Patton H. _


	11. You'll Be Fine

After a few days of working, Virgil had finished cleaning the painting properly and he’d taken a couple of pictures, to make sure he remembered what it originally looked like and what he was supposed to make out of it — he didn’t want it to end up like one of those restorations that didn’t look anything like the original, so that people could make fun of him in a century or two when the original painting was discovered.

Once all of the cleaning was done, came the next step — and, in Virgil's opinion, the trickiest. Figuring out what paints to use for the restoration. He liked to be as precise as possible, so this task could take quite a bit of time, depending on how difficult it was to find the right colour. But overall, it was a job he thoroughly enjoyed; it wasn’t too different from a puzzle, trying to find out which piece fit where. Only he was doing it with paint. It could be terribly frustrating, especially when dealing with paint from before the industrial revolution, when people made the paints themselves, which could prove complicated when trying to get the exact colour right, but he always made it work eventually. 

Right now, Virgil had worked out the proper paints he needed and he’d gotten started with the young woman’s white dress, carefully restoring it to what the original artist had meant it to be. As he was working on this, Virgil became vaguely aware of the door opening and closing behind him, but he didn’t pay much attention to it. He assumed it was Alice, who came in to check on his progress. She had come in a few times to see how he was doing and to make a bit of small talk. He just continued on with his work and waited for her to start talking to him. 

“Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate all the work you do,” a voice spoke behind him — definitely not Alice’s. “But I can’t see how she’s looking ‘better than ever’.”

Virgil took a moment to finish the fold in the dress he was working on. “That’s because I’m just getting started, you idiot,” he retorted with a smile, turning around to face Remy, who was standing in front of the door with a plastic bag in their hand. 

“Good,” they said with a nod, “I was about to get worried.” They gave Virgil a grin and raised up the bag in their hand. “I brought food. Figured you’d forget it again.”

“Lovely,” the other smiled as he put his brush and palette away. Remy, once again, was right. Obviously. “You spoil me too much.”

“Of course I do,” Remy said matter-of-factly as they sat down on one of the chairs. “You’re not doing it, so I’ll have to take it upon myself.” They gestured for Virgil to join them as they got their lunches out of the bag — usual order at Lionel’s. “So… having any fun with Little Miss Sunshine?”

“Oh, a lot of fun.” Virgil grabbed the plastic container with his Cobb salad and sat down himself. “I’m honestly just getting started, but it’s looking pretty good, I’d say.”

“Good, good,” Remy nodded. “Honestly, I never understand how you can do this for a living, I swear…”

“Hey, I could say the same about you,” the other retorted, raising an eyebrow. “I mean… talking to people for a living? I couldn’t do that.” There was only one thing Virgil knew about Remy’s job and that was that they talked to people. Now, that wasn’t a lot, but it was enough for him to know that job wasn’t for him. He was terrible at talking to people.

Remy chuckled as they grabbed a fork to stab it into their own salad. “Honestly… they talk to me more than I talk to them.”

“Same difference,” Virgil muttered before taking a bit of his salad. “It’s still talking to people and that’s bad enough.”

“Yeah, well… it’s not your fault you’re a tad bit weird,” they teased their friend, who stuck his tongue out at them. “I still love you.”

“Quit your flattering,” Virgil said with a soft smile. “I love you too, though.”

“I know you do.”

The two of them ate their lunch, chatting as they did and catching up. Despite being pretty much his only friend, Virgil never did get to spend as much time with Remy as he liked. They had irregular hours and needed to be available pretty much all the time. Any time of day, they could get a call requesting their presence. And Virgil… well, he had Alibi to worry about. And the whole situation with Crocodile- Remus. And Caesar. He still could not believe he had actually agreed to work together with the fucking Crocodile of all people. Taking down Caesar was important but… Remus had tried to kill him on multiple occasions. He still wasn’t sure he could trust the man, so he’d have to be careful. 

“Okay, something’s on your mind,” Remy observed as they put their now-empty container on the table. “What is it?”

Virgil blinked a few times as the question pulled him out of his rapid thinking and doubting. “Oh-” He couldn’t tell them the truth without revealing his true identity. And he did _not_ want to do that right now. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Remy with this information, but rather that he didn’t want to do it now. He didn’t want to reveal that he was Alibi in the middle of all of this. “It’s nothing much. Just… someone wanted to work together on- on a thing. I’ve just been… thinking about whether I should. I mean- I said yes, but… I wonder if it’s the right choice.”

“Oh?” Remy leaned a bit closer. “Tell me- what are the pros of working together with this mystery person?”

The pros of working with Remus? He’d have to think about that for a second. “If we team up, we can… create things that we wouldn’t be able to get done alone. It could be a- an opportunity. Definitely a unique one.”

Remy hummed. “Alright. And the cons?”

“Truth is… we didn’t always- get along,” he responded, rubbing his hands together nervously. “I don’t even know why they’d come to me for this. We did talk and I actually think they might not be as bad as I thought they’d be, but… I’m still not sure I can trust them, you know?”

“Oh, I do,” they said with a nod. “I know all about that. This is a big opportunity, you said?”

“Once in a lifetime, I’m pretty sure.”

“And you would want to do this, regardless of who you’d be paired with?’

Virgil took a moment to think about it but eventually nodded. Taking out Caesar would be a huge step and if he could take this chance, he would. The only thing bothering him was the fact that he didn’t know if he could trust Remus. 

“Then why don’t you give it a shot?” Remy suggested. “See how everything goes? If it turns out you don’t work well together, you can break it off, right?”

“I suppose so,” Virgil said with a small nod. To be fair, he wasn’t sure how it would work if he wanted to back out, he didn’t know what Remus would say, but Remy had a point. He’d agreed to it anyways and he would definitely carry through with it, he was just… scared that it would go wrong somehow. And that’s exactly what he told Remy, who raised their eyebrow. 

“Wrong how?” 

Virgil ran a hand through his hair with a sigh, trying to figure out how to explain this situation to them without mentioning that he couldn’t trust that Remus wouldn’t try to kill him if he backed out of this deal. The fact that he hadn’t been killed yet didn’t mean anything for the future, after all. 

“It’s just… like I said, we don’t always get along that well,” he explained. “We’ve fought on multiple occasions. And I just… don’t get why they’d ask _me_ , you know? I suppose they did say that they needed someone to help them out with this, and I guess they thought I’d be best fit to help, but… it’s weird, you know?”

“I understand,” his friend hummed with a thoughtful nod. “Maybe give them a chance. Maybe it’ll turn out better than you expect. Besides, you need more contacts. This might be your chance to get out and get to know some more people.”

They had a point there. Virgil… didn’t have a lot of real life friends other than Remy. But he wasn’t sure that _Remus_ was friend-material. Sure, he’d give it a try, even if it was only to please Remy. He doubted that he’d come out of this with an extra friend, but sure. 

“You might be right,” he said softly, “I’ll give it a shot, I suppose. Thanks. And- sorry for rambling about this.”

“Hey, no worries,” Remy smiled, bumping their foot into Virgil’s underneath the table. “You’d be hopeless without me.”

Honestly… they were right. Even more than they knew. Remy was probably the only reason he was a sort of functioning human being. If it was left up to him, he’d probably forget to eat and sleep and do anything other than draw, paint and play superhero at night. The reminders they sent him or their surprise visits were more helpful to him than they seemed to realise. 

“I would,” he agreed, getting a laugh out of Remy. 

They talked for a little while longer, before Remy announced they had to leave. 

“Things have been going crazy at work this past week,” they explained as they gathered up the empty containers and plastic bag. “So I really can’t stretch this any longer.”

“I get it,” Virgil nodded, getting up himself. “I should probably continue on my work as well.”

“You should,” they said as they walked up to Virgil. “You in tomorrow?”

“I’ll be in most days until the painting’s done, so yeah.”

Remy grinned, swinging the plastic bag over their shoulder. “Great, I’ll see you tomorrow then,” they said. “Same time?”

“Sure,” Virgil said with a snort, knowing there was no way to change their mind. “Let me know how much money I owe you, though.”

“Don’t worry about it, it’s on me.”

Virgil had expected that answer. Remy always insisted on paying, saying that they’d have enough money and were more than happy to pay for their friend. And while Virgil couldn’t deny the fact that they made more money than he ever would, that didn’t mean he wasn’t suddenly _okay_ with them paying for his food all the time. 

“Rem…” 

“Virge…” The raised an eyebrow at him, copying his tone. “Look… don’t worry about it, babe. It’s barely a dent.”

“I know that, but-”

“No buts, I’m not accepting money currently, okay?” 

Virgil sighed but nodded finally. “Fine,” he muttered, although he was reluctant to say it. “You should probably go before your boss kills you, huh?”

Remy laughed and nodded. “I should,” they confirmed. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

They hugged Virgil before heading in the direction of the door, giving their friend one more grin before leaving. 


	12. No Negotiation

**_Unknown:_ ** _It’s Remus again, got a new place_

 **_Unknown:_ ** _548 Maple Drive. It’s the semi-basement_

 **_You:_ ** _i’m assuming you're telling me for a reason?_

 **_Unknown:_ ** _Yeah_

 **_Unknown:_ ** _I need your help, so I would appreciate it if you could come by_

 **_You:_ ** _… yeah sure_

 **_You:_ ** _i have to work, but I think I could come by around six-ish?_

 **_Unknown:_ ** _Sounds good. Knock five times so I know it’s you_

 **_You:_ ** _sure thing. see you then_

Ah, great. Virgil was just hoping to get some time to himself. But alas, Remus had to come in and take that away now, too. Luckily, Maple Drive wasn’t too far away from Virgil’s place. Maybe, after he came back from the workshop, he could change his clothes, go out somewhere to grab a quick bite and then walk to Remus’ new place from there. Hopefully, it would be over soon and he could go home to get some rest before he went back out as Alibi. The last couple of days had been particularly hectic, and he really needed the rest. Maybe he should take a day off work this weekend. He’d been working a lot lately, pushing himself aside in the process. Maybe it was time for a bit more me-time. 

After coming back from work, Virgil changed into something a little more presentable — and a little less stained with paint — before heading out again. He went to a snackbar to get some food — maybe not what he had hoped to get today, but at least it saved him a little bit of money, so… there was a thing. Then, he went over to Maple Drive 548. A large apartment building on a relatively busy street. There was a door on street level. Next to it, there was a small stair leading down to another door that would allow entrance to the semi-basement where Virgil was supposed to be going. He took the stairs down, knocked five times, like he was told to and waited. 

It wasn’t long before the door was opened, just a crack to ensure that the man in front of the door was really who he was supposed to be. When Remus was seemingly satisfied enough, he opened the door enough for Virgil to step inside. 

“I really hope this is gonna be worth it,” he muttered as he did so, looking around. He immediately entered into a small living room. With a black leather couch underneath the window looking out on the street, two identical chairs to the side and a television. There was a small desk to the back of the room, but by the looks of it, it was only used to store clutter. 

“Good to see you, too, Virgil,” Remus responded cynically as he flopped down on the couch, putting his feet on the backrest and hanging over the couch, his head just barely touching the ground. 

“I’m not exactly doing this for fun,” the hero said with a roll of his eyes as he took his place in one of the chairs. “I’m just here until we get Caesar and then I’m out, you know that, right?”

“Trust me, I’m well aware.”

“Good,” Virgil nodded. “Now… what is it you needed me for?” 

“I need to see The Inventor,” the Crocodile started, earning a raised eyebrow from the other. 

“Who?” 

Remus huffed, rolling his eyes in exasperation. “You know… smart guy. Makes things for money. Pretty sure he made your current suit.” 

Virgil nodded, making a soft sound of understanding. “Oh yeah, that guy,” he muttered. He knew that guy. He just didn’t have a name for him. “Wait- how are you so certain he made my suit?”

“I’ve seen your previous suits, Ali,” Remus reminded him. “They were nowhere near as good as this one. Besides, he’s the only one around here who has the knowledge to make something so advanced. It’s just a guess. I was correct then?” 

He grinned up at the hero, who looked away in annoyance. He really couldn’t wait until this cooperation was over. The only shitty thing about this was that Remus would now have his phone number. Really should have thought that through before he just handed his number to some villain-stranger. 

“Why do you need me to see this guy?” he asked, ignoring the question. “Can’t you do it by yourself?”

“Probably,” the ex-villain shrugged. “I just need some backup. I got word he’s making a weapon that can kill me. I need information on that weapon and I don’t think asking nicely will be the way to do it. So I need someone to maintain his attention while I search the information. Besides, I need an excuse to make an appointment with him and I got nothing. I’m not even sure he’d agree to see me. We don’t… get along.”

“I wonder why,” Alibi muttered under his breath. Judging by the glare from Remus, the other had heard him, but he chose to ignore it — surprisingly. If Virgil had to guess, he wouldn’t take this man as someone to avoid a little confrontation. But then again, there were more important things at hand here. 

“Anyways,” the other said loudly as he sat up normally again. “You have anything we can use as an excuse to go pay our lovely Inventor a visit?” 

Virgil took some time to think. There wasn’t a lot he needed at the moment. He had been thinking about trying to get an upgrade for his suit, but to be fair… he didn’t know what he could add that wasn’t already there. So on first thought, no, he didn’t have anything. But maybe… 

“I… I had him make some electric shields for me a while back,” he thought out loud. “They absorb any kind of energy. Maybe we could commission another pair, say it’s for you? That’s the only thing I’ve got right now.”

Remus remained silent, but nodded slowly, mulling this over in his head. It was the best shot they had. And, to be fair, maybe getting those shields wouldn’t be such a bad thing. He might have to use those if he ever got to the point where his powers wouldn’t work anymore.

“Sure,” he decided. “Whatever gets us to him, works.”

“Fair enough. Should I contact him then?” Virgil asked, looking at the other expectantly. He’d assumed the answer would be yes, given the fact that Remus specifically said that he didn’t think this man — The Inventor, as he seemed to call him — would want to meet with him. Which, if you asked him, sounded like a covert hint telling him to make the appointment.

“Please,” Crocodile nodded. “Ask him to meet as soon as possible. I don’t know how long it will take until the gun is ready and I would like to be prepared, before I get my head blasted off.”

“Will do.” Virgil grabbed his phone and searched for the contact of The Inventor — or, as he was called in his phone: tech guy. He typed out a quick text, telling the man that he wanted to meet up as quickly as possible for a commission, and put away his phone again. “What weapon is he making, anyways?”

“I’m not fully sure, but my friend Dorian told me it’s a gun that can at the very least cancel out my powers,” Remus explained, pushing himself off the couch. “It uses something based off Barrier’s DNA. Or at least… probably. The Inventor needed their DNA for the research. I don’t know what it can do, though. That’s why I need to go to the creator himself and have a look.”

Virgil nodded. So, that gun could be used for more people than Remus. Himself, for example. Okay, now he saw the urgency of wanting to get to know more about this weapon. This could be tricky. 

“And you’re sure this is reliable information?” he asked, turning around to look at the man who had just walked into the kitchen behind him. He was just visible from where Virgil was sitting. 

“Almost completely,” Remus called back as he opened a cabinet to grab himself a drink. “Dee is part of the organisation, so he’d know. He’s an expert liar, but he wouldn’t risk his life to talk to me if it was all a lie. Even he wouldn’t do something so stupid.” He slammed the door to the cabinet shut, holding a glass of whiskey, before realising his mistake. “Can I get you anything?”

“Nah, I’m good,” the hero responded, sitting back in his chair and looking around the place a bit. To be fair… he didn’t loathe this place. It looked surprisingly nice for someone who was a part of a criminal organisation. And the location was just as good. Virgil always liked being able to look at the feet of people passing by. There wasn’t a whole lot of natural light in this place due to the small windows, but that didn’t make it any less appealing. There were enough lights to make up for that.

“Good,” Remus responded as he walked past Virgil to sit down on the couch again. “I don’t have a lot here anyways. Just moved up here so the fridge is rather empty.”

As he nodded in response, Virgil found himself wondering just how many secret hideouts this man would have. He seemed to have more than enough to survive for at least the past few months without being found out by Caesar, which was impressive all by itself. Caesar had a lot of people at his disposal; he could find pretty much anyone in the blink of an eye. Except for Remus, apparently.

Then, the silence was broken by the vibrating of Virgil’s phone, who quickly reached out to check out the text he had gotten. 

**_Tech guy:_ ** _Sure. Come by tonight, three sharp. AM._

 **_You_ ** _: will do_

“Inventor says we can come by tonight at three,” Virgil announced. “Will that work?”

“What do you think?” Remus bit back as he sipped his drink. “It’s not like I’ve got anything else to attend to.”

“Just checking in,” Virgil defended himself. That would be a late night, then. If this would wrap up quickly, he might be able to go home and rest a little, then patrol until half past two and go to The Inventor. Hopefully, they’d be done quickly so he could be home before four. Tomorrow would be a long day, but it wasn’t the first time he had to deal with it. The Inventor always wanted to meet at weird times. Probably for security reasons, even though Virgil had never been able to figure out exactly why. 

“Meet me at five to three in front of his lab, yeah?” Remus asked, turning to Virgil. “Then we can take care of this and be done with that.”

“Sounds good,” Virgil nodded. The less time he had to spend with this man, the better. Sure, he could stand being around him for as long as this job lasted, but he couldn’t see himself actually becoming good friends with him. When they finished the job, he would be glad to be rid of him. “I’ll see you then.”

Not long after that, the two put an end to their meeting and Virgil went back home. He got a few hours of rest before he went out on patrol, stretching the hours until half past two. Then, he went his way to The Inventor’s lab, not far from the city centre. He waited around, remaining invisible, as he looked for a sign of Remus. Said Remus didn’t show up until exactly five to three, scanning the area to make sure that there was no one suspicious around. Virgil turned visible once more and walked up to Remus. 

“You ready?”

Crocodile nodded. “Let’s go,” he said, already moving forwards. “By the way, I changed my mind. We also need ear pieces from him. So we can talk during the you-know-what.”

The two of them walked into the lab. It wasn’t a big lab, but when you stopped to think that all of this was occupied and paid for by only one person… it most certainly was. They walked through a hallway, passing several small rooms that all contained several supplies, weapons, or experiments in progress, before stopping in front of the last room in the corridor. Remus didn’t hesitate for a second before he pushed the door open. 

"I've got to say, Crocodile," The Inventor called immediately without even looking up from the notes in front of him, "even for you, it's incredibly foolish to come here with Caesar out for you."

"Well, you know me," Remus grinned as he held the door open for Virgil, "living life on the edge."

“An unlikely alliance, too,” the man finally looked up from his notes, turning to Virgil just as the mask disappeared around his face, retreating into the glasses. It was no use keeping it on anyways; The Inventor knew what he looked like already. “Now, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

“You had a commission for Caesar, right?" Remus asked, immediately getting to the point. He knew he wasn’t going to get anything out of this, but it was worth a shot, wasn’t it? “A gun, I heard. Special kind, too.”

"You and me both know I'm sworn to secrecy," the man answered, scribbling something in his notebook. "I can't tell anything."

"But surely you'd make an exception for me?" Remus wrapped his arms around The Inventor, resting his head on the man's shoulder. He shot a quick grin at The Inventor before turning his eyes to the desk, quickly scanning what he saw before him.

Finally, the latter looked up. "I can't say anything," he repeated, staring at the Crocodile lazily. " _Especially_ not to you."

“Come on,” Remus pouted. “You’re no fun.”

“I do not strive to be fun.”

Remus rolled his eyes and untangled himself, carefully passing behind The Inventor as he turned his attention to Virgil, deciding that Crocodile was a lost cause anyways.

"Now," the man spoke, "Is there an actual reason to your visit, or did you just come here to waste our time?"

"Actually, no," Virgil shook his head. His eyes quickly darted to Remus, who sneakily pushed a few folders around on the desk. "You still have those designs for the electric shields you made for me?"

"Obviously," the technician said. "I keep all my designs."

"Good. We would like another pair of those for R- Crocodile," he said, almost slipping up. “And a pair of earpieces for communication.” 

The Inventor nodded thoughtfully. "Very well, I can arrange that," he concluded. Virgil's eyes drifted over to Remus for just a second as the other carefully opened one of the folders. However, before he could get a full look, The Inventor whipped around and slammed his hand on the folder, closing it and taking it away from Remus. "And I'm afraid _that's_ confidential." He glared. 

"We'll pay… double of your price," Virgil tried softly to divert the attention from Remus. 

"Double?" The Inventor turned to look at the hero, narrowing his eyes behind his glasses. "You come into my lab, ask for confidential information, and when you don't get what you want, you snoop through my stuff in order to get that _same_ confidential information. Then you have the audacity to try to commission me and offer only _double_ in the hopes that that will make me forget what you did?"

Virgil tried his best not to shrink away under the man's furious glance. He'd faced many beasts and villains, but the fury of this man, surrounded by dangerous weapons, might have been one step too much for him to handle. 

Luckily, there was Remus. 

"Make it quadruple," he suggested as he caught up with Virgil who gave him a protesting glare. " _And_ I won't bother you again."

He raised an eyebrow, knowing that offer was hard to refuse. And not only in money. It wasn’t a secret that The Inventor wasn’t fond of Remus, so the prospect of not having to deal with him… was tempting. And there was a big sum of money involved, too.

“Fine,” he reluctantly agreed. He wasn’t happy with these people, but the idea of not having to deal with Crocodile’s highly irritating attitude ever again made it worth it. “I expect to have it ready in a week. I’ll let you know when to pick it up. Now get the hell out of my lab.”

The two of them left almost immediately, having finished all the business they had here. 

“You better be paying half of that,” Virgil hissed as the door closed behind him. “I don’t have that kind of money, you know?”

“Yeah, yeah, calm your ass down,” Remus dismissed with a roll of his eyes. “I got this. Have a little bit of faith in me, yeah?” 

“When you’ve earned it,” he muttered under his breath, immediately continuing before the other had the time to make any sort of dumb comment. “Please tell me that you’ve managed to find something useful before he caught you.”

“Not much,” Remus shrugged, seemingly not too concerned with this fact, despite being the one who had come up with the idea to come here in the first place. “It’s called the Crocodile Hunter, apparently. It shoots some sort of energy blast. I think. That’s all.”

Virgil raised his eyebrow. “That’s all?” 

“It’s more than enough,” Crocodile responded simply. “I know what it looks like, I know what to expect. Helps me out in the long run.”

“If you say so…” 

The two of them remained silent until they made it to the front door of the building. The mask appeared again, hiding Virgil’s face as he turned to the man next to him. 

“Is there anything else we need to discuss, or are we good to go from here?”

“I don’t need to discuss anything,” Remus said immediately, seemingly wanting to be done with this just as much as Virgil did. “So I think we can go.”

Virgil nodded quickly, pushing the door open. “Good,” he said. “Let’s do that, then.”

There was a brief silence between the two as they seemed the be thinking of a way to wrap this up. Remus opened his mouth and for a moment, it seemed like he wanted to say something, but he shook his head. 

“I’ll let you know if I’ve got anything,” he announced. “You know where to find me if he finishes our stuff, right?”

“Yeah,” Virgil confirmed with another nod. “I’ll let you know if he tells me anything.”

Remus grinned broadly at Virgil. “Awesome,” he smiled, “I will see you then. Try not to get yourself killed in the meantime.”

Alibi responded with a soft chuckle, already focusing his powers on the air around him, so he could take off whenever the conversation ended. “I’ll try my best.” 


	13. www.heroic-crimefighting-updates.com

_ Hey guys! _

_ I’m sorry for the absence lately. Like I said before, I’ve been working on something really big and it’s finally done to post it! I’ve put a lot of work in it, and honestly… I’m pretty proud of it.  _

_ So… what is this, you may ask? I’ll tell you!! _

_ It is no secret to anyone living in Kingston and its surroundings that there seem to be a lot of disappearances lately. Not just here, but in smaller towns and villages in the area, too. And there has been a significant increase over the past six years. Ever since Caesar became a big name in the underworld. At the same time, there’s been a large number of people with powers — and a lot of them seem to be on the side of evil. Surely, this can’t be a coincidence, right? That’s exactly what I wanted to investigate.  _

_ To start it all off, I have done some digging into the past. Trying to find note of anyone with powers before Caesar became a large name, or any incident involving the grey matter than has now been proven to be at least one source of powers.  _

_ I’ve found articles tracing back to more than twenty years ago, the most notable being a grey matter explosion in a lab that ran tests on the substance, which injured about a dozen people and even killed a few. I haven’t been able to found anything specific on that incident, though. It wouldn’t be unthinkable that it gave some people their powers, but I haven’t been able to find anything specific. I found some reports from a hospital running tests on people to study the effects of the matter, which did seem to show that it caused a minor mutation to the cells of the affected, but I don’t know if any of them got powers.  _

_ Something that caught my eye, though, was an article about a house fire, four years ago (I will link it below if anyone is interested). One of the inhabitants of the house said that they’d lit a few candles downstairs. They were there the entire time, but suddenly, the flame seemed to grow unnaturally big, and it grew out of control. It set one of the curtains ablaze, and it quickly grew into a huge fire that consumed the entire house. But the weird thing was that nothing happened. No one did anything and yet, the fire grew. People theorized that it had to be something supernatural. Which nowadays, doesn’t sounds so weird anymore.  _

_ Next, I found an article from only a few months later, reporting a disappearance. The person that had disappeared was Ray Levi. The daughter of the family whose house had been set ablaze a few months prior. She was nineteen at the time.  _

_ And then, around seven to eight months later, we can find the first accounts of the villain Dragon. As you probably know — and if you don’t know, you can probably guess — her powers are those of fire manipulation. Is it a coincidence that this villain with fire powers appears, a little over half a year after a girl whose house went up in flames after a supposed supernatural happening? I don’t think so.  _

_ And Dragon isn’t the only one. Dynamo is another case of a villain appearing just a few months after the disappearance of someone else. And there’s so many more people disappearing. On top of that, dozens of people, especially villains, keep popping up all over the country. Even people in places where there’s no account of anything even closely related to grey matter. Which is odd, since grey matter is the only thing that’s known to give people their powers as of now.  _

_ Now, I am convinced that this is not a coincidence. It’s all too… perfect. For a long time now, there have been rumours that one of the biggest labs in the area (Thornwall, McKay Labs, Golding, or Freemen Labs) might be closely related to Caesar and his organisation. This would make sense, given their large array of advanced weapons, armour and other technology. There has to be something big behind that, but it’s hard to prove anything. There isn’t much other than rumours. There have been a lot of people saying they’ve seen people like the Crocodile — back when he was still in leagues with Caesar — and Dragon make regular visits at McKay Labs, which can imply them working together. On top of that, people have also reported seeing people that are often seen around buildings known to be linked to Caesar, leaving or entering Thornwall Labs. However, this is nothing concrete. It’s only rumours and vague theories. Still… it’s interesting to keep in mind. _

_ But whether or not we can prove this, I am certain that either one of these labs HAS to be related to Caesar somehow. Especially Thornwall has been in the news a lot, with Alibi having busted the place a few times — never with any result that we know of, but the fact that he’s even had to do that is hugely suspicious and raises a lot of questions.  _

_ So… you’ve heard it here first: I have a strong feeling that Caesar and his organisation are linked to the many disappearances in the area, as well as the many empowered people popping up everywhere. It is highly likely that they run experiments on people in order to develop powers — either powers they might already have, or to give them new powers they didn’t have before.  _

_ As always, thank you guys so for reading this! I love you all very very much, until the next time <3 _

_ \- Patton H. _


	14. Teach Me To Fight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: fighting, attempted murder, murder, minor character death

The exact moment that Patton posted this post, Virgil and Remus had met up once more on Maple Drive. It had been a week since their visit to The Inventor. The shields and earpieces had been made and picked up, and Remus had since received word from Dorian that the weapon Roman had commissioned to take him out had been finished. The two partners had even learned how to get along a little bit better. They still weren’t the best of friends, but at least they got along and they could be civil with each other. 

So now, with their tech all sorted out and the knowledge that there was now a weapon out there that had the chance of killing Remus — and possibly Virgil, too — they could start the newest phase of their plan; finally working out how to kill Caesar. 

But before they could really get to the bottom of it, Remus got a notification of a new post on the blog heroic-crimefighting-updates.com. He checked the post almost immediately, as he become his habit ever since the blog started getting some traction. 

“God fucking damn it,” he swore as he saw the topic of the newest post, gaining a confused look from Virgil. “That stupid fucking-” 

“Are you… okay?” Virgil looked at him carefully, following Remus as he got up from his place on the couch, moving to the door that Virgil had learned would lead to the bedroom. “What’s going on?”

“You know that blog, right?” Remus asked, throwing the door open and walking to the closer, getting out his Crocodile-suit. “Heroic-crimefighting-updates?”

“Of course.” It was a blog that wrote about him, amongst others. Of course he would learn about it sooner of later. It seemed that everyone in the entire area knew about it anyways, so even if he wasn’t one of the main subjects of the blog, it would be impossible not to know about it.

“Good. We need to go save that Journalist kid.”

Virgil blinked in confusion. “What?” 

Remus stopped to look at Virgil, his suit in his hand. “The writer. He posted some dumb ass shit that’s _definitely_ going to get him killed. We need to be there before Caesar’s men get to him. I’m just going to suit up. We need to make sure they don’t kill him.”

He quickly changed his outfit, not bothering to close the door as he did so. Virgil grimaced slightly and looked away, not feeling like watching this guy he barely knew get dressed. 

“And you care about saving him… why exactly?” It wasn’t that Virgil himself didn’t care about saving this journalist. If he had the chance to save someone, he would. And from what he’d said on his blog, the writer was still a student, so saving him was actually a little bit more urgent with this knowledge. He was just surprised that Remus, the Crocodile, the nightmare of every criminal, with a hitlist longer than Santa’s list, wanted to _save_ someone’s life. 

“I’m not a monster, V,” Remus said, slightly strained as he tried to wiggle into his suit. “The kid’s innocent.” There was a slight pause, in his voice as well as his movements to look up at Virgil. “And he might have some useful information, too.”

Ah. There it was. Virgil wasn’t surprised that there would be a motive other than ‘I wanna save the guy just for the sake of saving him because that’s what heroes do’. Because honestly… Remus wasn’t the guy to do that. Virgil wasn’t sure if the word ‘selflessness’ even appeared in his vocabulary. 

“Are you sure it’s safe for you to go out there?” he asked, completely disregarding the other’s response, simply because he didn’t know what to do with it. 

Remus frowned slightly as he tried to put on his suit as quickly as possible — he really hated this part of the job, but hey, it had to be done. “What?”

“With the- the Crocodile Hunter,” Virgil explained, doing whatever he could to not look at the half dressed man behind him. “It can actually kill you, if it works, at least. Could be tricky to go out there. Especially like that.”

Finally having finished putting on the suit, Remus grabbed his mask. “Virgil Alibi Whatever-Your-Last-Name-Is,” he started with a teasing grin. “Are you saying you care about me?” 

Virgil rolled his eyes, although he smiled slightly. “I care… about you not dying,” he defended. “There’s a difference.”

Remus snorted as he walked back into the room, nudging Virgil slightly. “Ah, admit it. You love me,” he teased with a wink at the hero.

“Shut up,” Alibi muttered under his breath. “What are we gonna do after this, though? If they can’t kill him now, Caesar’s gonna try again at a later time. We can’t protect him forever. So what comes next?”

Remus grimaced at this. He’d thought of this as well, of course he had. “I think he’s gonna have to come here for a while,” he answered; a solution he was very much not looking forwards to. Being a hero came at a great cost. “I can keep him safe here.” Virgil nodded. That was something he could deal with. At least Remus seemed to be serious about this saving the kid’s life business. “Come on, we need to go.” He quickly changed the subject, walking to the door. “You can fly both of us, right? That will be quicker.”

“If you give me the address.” Virgil got up as he put on the glasses and the watch, syncing them up and giving the suit the order to form. He hadn’t bothered to put on the suit for as long as he was in here, but he’d still brought it, just in case something had to be done as Alibi. Turns out that had been a good choice. “Do you even know where to go?”

Remus shrugged as he walked towards the front door. “Of course I do. We’ve had our eyes set on him for almost as long as he’s been running that little blog of his,” He opened the door, waiting for Virgil to catch up. “Address is Creek Lane 711. Not too far from here.”

Virgil nodded as he looked down at his watch, inserting the address. “I must warn you, I haven’t actually tried flying anyone else, so I can’t promise it’s going to be pleasant.” He took a look at the address; it wasn’t too far away from here. When flying, they could be there in about five minutes. Assuming he would be able to maintain a decent speed, that it. 

“Do your worst, Stormy.” 

The two of them walked outside and as soon as Remus had closed and locked the door behind them. Virgil focussed entirely on the air around him. He was quite good as supporting himself, but now he also needed to carry someone else with him. And while he was confident about his abilities, it was still a scary thought. He could not feel how well Remus was supported. What if he failed? What if he fell? 

“Alright, I’ll try my best,” he said. “Hold on.” 

With a simple gesture of his hands, the wind gathered around them, strong enough to pick them up and support them as they flew through the sky. It took Virgil a lot of concentration to both make sure that they were on the right track, and to ensure that Remus was steady enough. But, after just a minute or so, he found a certain stability that seemed to work out as long as he kept his focus. And just a few minutes later, they arrived in front of the apartment building where Patton lived. Gradually, the winds supporting them died down, allowing the two of them to go back to the ground. 

“You doing good?” Virgil asked as soon as their feet touched the ground again. He just wanted to be sure that he’d done okay. Flying for the first time could be… disorienting.

“Doing fine, don’t worry about me,” Remus said with a wink. If he had been affected by it, he certainly didn’t let it show. “Come on, it’s s on the third floor.”

“How do you even know where he lives?” 

“I used to work with Caesar,” he deadpanned as he walked towards the building. “Need I say more?”

“Would be nice,” Virgil muttered under his breath as he followed the other into the building. 

They walked up to the third floor, and towards the apartment closest to the street. There was a window at the end of the corridor and Remus cast a quick glance outside. Once he’d made sure that there was nothing suspicious outside, he crouched down in front of the door and got something out of his black boot, starting to pick the lock. He worked swiftly. Even before Virgil could protest — or try to knock on the door instead — a soft click could be heard, and the door opened. 

“What were you gonna say?” Remus asked with a smug grin as he turned to Virgil, very much aware of the other’s objections to this. “It’s quicker.”

Before Virgil could even reply, the other had already disappeared into the apartment, calling out for Patton. Alibi simply rolled his eyes and followed his ally into the apartment, but not before looking around in the hallway to make sure no one was looking. A glance outside told him that there was no one waiting outside either. Good. They were safe, for now. 

Patton walked out of one of the rooms bordering the living area, confused as to who the hell could have entered his apartment without his consent. When he saw the Crocodile and Alibi standing in the middle of his home, he froze in shock, looking at the two men with confusion and surprise in his eyes. 

“Are you absolutely out of your mind?” Remus hissed, walking up to the student before he had any time to respond. “What the fuck did I tell you about posting incriminating information about Caesar and his goons?”

Patton took a startled step back, looking from the Crocodile to Alibi. “W- what?”

“Come on, you really think that you can just post an article about their human trafficking and experiments and get away with it?”

Virgil rolled his eyes and pushed Remus to the side a bit, allowing himself a better look at Patton. “Look, what he’s trying to say… that thing you posted is dangerous. Chances are that Caesar will come after you sooner or later-”

“Sooner,” Remus interrupted harshly, turning around to study their surroundings. He didn’t trust this one bit. Something had to happen soon. Roman just _had_ to know about this blog. And he was not going to be happy about this post. The only question was… where would the attack come from? “He’s gonna come after you sooner. Like… _now_ soon.”

Patton turned to Virgil, panic flaring up in his eyes. “What? I-”

“Look, it’s fine,” Virgil reassured him, putting a hand on his shoulder. “That’s why we’re here. We’re not gonna allow him to do anything to you. You are probably gonna have to go in hiding for a little bit, but we’ve got that sorted.”

“We’re gonna have to get the information on your friends, too,” Remus spoke, not looking away from the street as he did so. “They’re targets now too.”

“Family?” Alibi wanted to know, looking at the other man, who still had his back turned to them.

Remus shook his head. “They live on the other side of the country, they’ll be safe for now. They’re too far away. Caesar’s got no men there, and I don’t think he will bother. Too much trouble to get his men all the way over there.”

“What?” Patton looked at the silhouette in front of the window with a frown. “How do you know?”

“Caesar knows, so I know,” Crocodile shrugged. “Unless they moved in the past months, but I doubt that.”

The student shook his head. “No, they-”

But then, something caught Remus’ eye. “Fuck,” he hissed, cutting Patton off abruptly. A car just pulled up in front of the building, and he knew that this had to be one of Caesar’s guys. Black car, blinded windows, thick wheels, likely bulletproof. There was no doubt in his mind. “I think they’re here. You make sure the kid stays safe, I will welcome them outside.” 

“Wait-” Remus turned around in the door opening to look at Virgil, a certain determination in his eyes. “How do you know they don’t have the weapon?”

“They won’t, cause they’re not expecting me,” Crocodile shrugged, already turning around. “Besides, there’s only one of those out there. If anyone has it, it’s Jamie Marsh. And they’re not sending him after a job like this. Way too easy.” 

Virgil was still hesitant, but he let Remus go. If anything went south, he would be there to intervene. He looked outside and saw the last two guys heading into the building. There was nothing on the roofs and no suspicious behaviour on the street, so it seemed that they would be safe otherwise. But just to be sure, Virgil stayed close to Patton, who was very clearly stressing out about this situation. Understandably so. Knowing that the biggest criminal in the entire area — entire state, probably — was out to kill you was… not a reassuring feeling. Virgil should know.

Virgil headed closer to the window, telling Patton to follow him. He wanted to be able to keep an eye out on the street and the roof opposite them. If he’d learned anything from years of being a hero, it was that Caesar never came underprepared. He always had contingency plans, so he needed to keep his eyes open while Remus was out fighting those goons. 

Out in the hallway, Remus was leaning against one of the walls. Patiently waiting for the hitmen to come up. It wasn’t a super high-profile job, so he expected two or three people to arrive. Maybe a fourth, for back-up. That was nothing he couldn’t handle. He’d taken out twice as many people without batting an eye. 

It wasn’t long until they came upstairs. Four people carrying guns, just like Remus expected. As the door to the stairway opened, he pushed himself up, stretching a little bit. 

“Hey guys,” he smirked as the four stepped into the hallway. “Long time no see.”

For a second, the men froze in surprise at seeing the Crocodile out here. Then, the first of them turned to the man next to him, whispering a soft order to him before making his way towards Remus. The other two followed him, while the one who had been whispered to shrunk back. 

One man stood back to shoot bullets at Remus that ricocheted off his now steel-skin, not even making a dent — although his suit did suffer slightly. The other two lunged at him, trying to hurt him with their knuckle dusters. Of course, that did nothing to him. Knuckle dusters or not, Remus’ skin was still made of steel for the time being. He barely even felt a tickle. 

Crocodile ducked underneath a fist aimed at him and grabbed the outstretched arm, taking this opportunity to knee his attacker in the stomach. When the man doubled over, Remus raised his arm and brought his elbow straight down, hitting the back of his attacker’s neck with a 12-6 elbow. The sheer force of the blow immediately caused the man to fall to the ground. If he was lucky, he was only KO. 

He hit a second opponent with a backfist and a spinning kick. The enemy managed to get a punch in, but Remus reasoned it hurt himself more than his intended target. 

“Come on, you thought that would work?” he asked as he grabbed the back of his opponent’s neck and threw his into the wall face first. Knock out. “I’m disappointed.”

Now there was only the the man with the gun and the one who was about to call for backup. 

Without breaking a sweat, Remus moved closer to the gunman. He jumped forwards, wrapping one leg around the back of the man’s knees. The other leg came around his stomach. With a simple twist of his own body, Remus brought the man to the ground, hitting his head on the floor. Just to be sure the other was knock out, Crocodile threw a few more punches at him. Yeah, he was definitely out by now. 

So. Three down. One to go.

Virgil heard the ruckus outside, and an uneasy feeling snuck up on him. Like something was about to happen. So, he pried off one of the bracelets around his wrists and handed it to Patton. 

“Take this,” he said. “It’s an electronic shield. If you throw your hand up like this” — he demonstrated the move, a vague holographic shield appearing in the air — “you should get a shield. Drop your hand to deactivate it.” He also showed this move, although it really wasn’t that difficult. “Got it?”

“Yeah,” Patton nodded as he slipped the bracelet on his wrist, his eyes darting in the direction of the hallway every now and then. “Thank you.” 

He didn’t look at Virgil, and it was clear he was uncomfortable. Virgil felt for the kid. He just wanted to write his blog, and now he was in this mess. Of course, it was a dangerous business, writing about superheroes and -villains — and especially the villains were risky — but that didn’t mean he deserved to be in this situation. This was exactly why they needed to get rid of Caesar, and everything he had built up. He was a danger to everyone in the area.

But then- Virgil saw movement on the roof on the other side of the roof. He tapped the screen of his watch twice, activating the heat vision in his glasses, and saw, indeed, movement. He got a heat signature from a person, crouched on the roof with a gun emitting a strange kind of radiation. And if he was right about their position… 

“Crap,” he swore, turning to Patton. “Stay here.”

As quickly as he could, he ran out of the apartment, placing himself between Remus and the window looking out on the road. He whipped up his left hand — the one that still had the shield on it — and made sure to protect Remus, who was seemingly finishing up the last guy. 

Virgil was just in time, because as soon as he had activated it, the shield was hit by a huge blast of energy that was strong enough to push him back, nearly throwing him off balance. Shattered glass flew through the air, scattered across the floor.

“What are you-” Remus hissed as he threw the guy he was battling into a wall, causing a loud crack to fill the corridor. 

“Crocodile Hunter,” Virgil just responded. “Stay with Patton. I will take care of this.” 

He didn’t allow for an answer as he jumped out of the window, using his powers to fly to the other side. As he landed, he made sure to take the hitman — Crocodile Hunter, as he’d unofficially been dubbed — down with him with a strong gust of wind. Virgil made a quick shoulder roll and lunged at the gun, which had been dropped by its wielder. 

Just before he could grab it, a foot kicked it away from his grasp. Virgil knew he could easily use his power to fly it back into his hand and fly away, but he didn’t care for that right now. That wasn’t his priority. He needed to finish this job and he needed to do it well, because otherwise it would come back to bite him in the ass. This situation called for something that he usually shied away from. But desperate times...

“Re, you hear me?” Virgil asked as he rolled back to avoid the foot that had been aimed at the gun just a second prior and was now making its way over to him. 

_“Loud and clear,”_ came the response over his earpiece. 

“Great.” Alibi jumped up, feeling the air around him, gathering around his clenched fist, just before he sent it flying to the man before him — who he quickly recognized as Marksman, just like Remus predicted. “It’s Marksman. How essential is he?”

_“Wait, the great and honourable Alibi wants to kill someone? Am I hearing this right?”_

Virgil rolled his eyes and rushed towards Marksman, hitting him with two consecutive punches, before the man before him ducked away and kicked at his knees, throwing him off balance. “Just answer the question.”

_“I don’t care. Take him out if you must.”_

“Perfect,” Virgil said softly, just before getting punched right in the face, stumbling back. “Might wanna cover your ears.” He glared at Marksman and dropped to his knees. Then, he clenched his fist tightly as he focussed his powers on the electricity in the air, almost feeling it crackle at his fist. He needed to concentrate all this energy the right way if he wanted to succeed at this. In truth, part of him didn’t want to succeed, but… he was going for it now. Might as well go for it. 

He raised his fist, bringing it down immediately. A bright flash of light then lit up the night sky, followed by a deafening crash and the ground — or… roof — seemingly trembling beneath his feet. Virgil closed his eyes and waited for the initial shock to be over. When everything cleared away, he was left with a slight ringing in his ears. 

Before him, Jamie Marsh lay on the ground, unmoving. Some red lines were visible on the side of his throat, branching out, reminiscent of the shape of a lightning bolt in the sky. Lichtenberg figures. Other than that, there wasn’t anything of note. He was dead. Virgil realised, as he walked up to the man, that he’d just killed someone. For the first time. And while it felt bad… it didn't feel as bad as he’d thought it would. He still felt horrified that he would be capable of something like this, but it was like he thought it would feel. He thought he would be nauseated, trembling like a kicked puppy, on the verge of passing out. But he wasn’t. He just… felt bad. That’s all. Maybe it was the fact that Marksman was a villain, a murderer. The fact that that he tried to kill Remus or the fact that he wasn’t likely to have anyone to go home to. But Virgil didn’t feel as bad as he thought he would. And that was a weird feeling. 

Then, the hero’s eyes fell on a weapon just a few feet away from them. The Crocodile Hunter. It looked surprisingly small, more like a handgun than what Virgil had expected. He didn’t know what he thought it would look like, but… not this.

“What do I do with the gun?” Virgil asked as he got up, slowly moving towards the weapon. His heart was racing and he couldn’t get himself to look at Marsh, but at the same time, he couldn’t take his eyes off of the body.

_“Take it in.”_

He nodded as he crouched down and picked it up. “Got it,” he said, right before he walked to the ledge and flew back to the building on the other side of the street. He landed in the corridor again, in the middle of all the glass and chaos. With a deep breath, he walked back into the apartment, where he saw Remus and Patton standing exactly where they left off. 

“You’re lucky I’m here to watch your ass,” Virgil commented with a small grin as he walked up to the two. “Is that everyone?”

Remus nodded. “For now,” he confirmed. “But he’ll send more people once he finds out it’s been unsuccessful. So we need to get out of here.”

“Wait, what?” Patton asked in confusion, looking between the two men. “But what- where-”

“Relax, Daily Bugle, I’ve got a place,” Crocodile reassured them lazily, doing quite a bad job at being comforting. “Just… pack some stuff you can’t do without. And clothes, preferably. We’ll get you there.”

“Right…” Patton said with a small nod. “And I have to stay there until…?”

“Until however long it takes to get this shit back on track,” Remus finished. “Just go pack, I don’t know how long we still have.” 

The student nodded and hurried to his room, wanting to get out of there for a moment to himself. All of this… was a lot to take in. He needed a second to process the fact that he just almost fucking died. 

During the exchange, Virgil had walked over to the windows, wanting to keep a clear look on what was happening outside. If any reinforcements arrived, he wanted to know. When Patton had left, Remus made his way over to the other, standing behind him. 

“So,” he whispered softly in Virgil’s ear, dragging out the sound for much longer than he actually needed to. “You saved my life. I knew you cared about me.”

“Shut up.” Virgil shook his head with a smile, keeping his eye on the street and trying to ignore the involuntary shiver running down his spine.

“Look, don’t get me wrong, I appreciate it-”

“Like I said, I care about you not dying,” Alibi retorted, slightly nudging Remus with his elbow. “There’s a difference.”

Remus hummed softly. “You keep saying that,” he commented. “And yet…”

“Don’t even _think_ about finishing that.” Virgil tried to threaten. Unfortunately, this failed, mostly due to the smile that pulled at the corners of his mouth. This man really was an annoying piece of shit, but Virgil found that he didn’t mind as much as he used to. At least he knew what to expect with Remus nowadays. It was comfortable and… nice in some weird way he didn’t understand.

Not long after that, Patton left his bedroom with two bags. He walked over to his couch to grab his laptop and its charger, and stuffed them into one of his bags before making his way over to the hero pair. 

(Could he say that? Crocodile wasn’t traditionally a hero, but he didn’t seem to be committing any villainous acts now, or at any moment in the past few months. In fact, the thing he seemed to want to do could even be seen as a heroic act. So… he could call them a hero pair, right? Even if it was just for the time being?)

“I think I’m good to go,” he said softly. He was more than hesitant to say this. Despite everything, he really didn’t want to leave. He liked his home. He didn’t want to leave, even if he understood why is was for the better. Especially since Caesar seemed to know exactly where he lived… which was a terrifying thought. It was more than just a little scary to think about the fact that the biggest criminal in the state, the man he wrote about on his blog, the man the international newspapers even described as exceptionally dangerous, that this man knew about him, his blog and where he lived. Where his friends and family lived, even. That was absolutely frightening. It was hard to believe that this was real, and not some kind of movie. 

“Great, let’s go,” Remus said, clapping his hands together as he took a step back. He walked towards the corridor, with the others following. In front of the hole that replaced the window that was there previously, he stopped. “Virgil, if you would do the honours?”

“Right, so since you figured out I can make _you_ fly, I need to do all the work here?” Alibi asked with a teasing smile. 

“Hey, I can’t fly,” Remus defended, raising his hands. 

Virgil shook his head with a smile. “It’s all good. Prepare yourself,” he added, turning to Patton. “We’re gonna have to fly, so… you might wanna prepare for that.”

“Oh,” Patton said with a slight stammer. “Yeah… sure.” 


	15. Looking Up at Rock Bottom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: smoking, mentions of death

Virgil flew the three of them back to Maple Drive, making sure that the journey went smoothly and that no one would see them flying through the sky. He had a feeling that that would be just a little suspicious. 

After a few minutes, the trio landed safely in front of Maple Drive 548. Remus immediately walked down the stairs to his front door, grabbing his key to unlock it. Virgil turned around to look at Patton, who seemed to be slightly unsteady on his feet. 

“Are you okay?” the hero asked carefully, walking over to the student. 

“Yeah, yeah,” he said, giving the other a shaky smile. “Just… need a moment.”

“Alright,” Virgil nodded, looking around them to make sure they were alone. The only people on the street right now were a few people on the other side of the road, casting a few glances at the man in the suit before turning their attention away. Nevertheless, he did not feel safe out here. “Think you can walk downstairs and take a moment there?”

“Yeah. I’m sorry.” Patton walked in the direction of the house. Remus had already opened the front door and was waiting impatiently for the two others to catch up. 

“Don’t worry about it,” Virgil said gently as he followed the student down the stairs. 

“Took you long enough,” Remus called out with a barely hidden roll of his eyes. “I don’t fancy being murdered down here, you know?”

“Shut up,” Alibi muttered as he walked inside the small house, Patton leading the way. “Give him a break, will you?”

Remus shrugged as he closed and locked the door. “I’m just saying,” he said simply.

“Well, don’t.” Virgil carefully placed the gun on the coffee table. “He’s had to deal with enough without you hounding him about it.”

Remus rolled his eyes but didn’t bother responding. Instead, he walked over to the table and grabbed a cigarette and lighter. “Be right back,” he announced as he walked over to the kitchen. 

“Don’t mind him,” Virgil told Patton as he walked over to the couch. “He can be a real jerk sometimes. Feel free to… sit somewhere, though.”

The student nodded as he sat down on one of the chairs, dropping his bags next to him. He had trouble believing that all of this was… happening. In any other situation, he would freak out over meeting Alibi — a guy who he absolutely  _ loved _ . But right now, he was too panicked to even think about freaking out. Fucking  _ Caesar _ , of all people just tried to get him killed. That was a terrifying thought. He’d never even thought about that eventually happening. After all, why would the kingpin of crime in this city bother keeping up with his little blog, right? He didn’t think he was important enough.

“So…” he voiced softly, too afraid to look at Alibi, who had now taken off his suit and placed the watch and sunglasses on the table. “What’s the plan?”

Virgil shook his head, turning to look at Patton. “Remus and I have to get rid of Caesar somehow,” he responded. “After that… I have to say, I’m not sure. You’ll stay here, for… I don’t know. As long as needed. It isn’t safe for you to go on the street right now, so we’ll be able to protect you here.”

“Right,” Patton nodded softly. “And my friends? You said they could be targets as well, right?”

“Yeah,” the hero said with a bit of reluctance audible in his voice. “We’ll have to discuss that when Remus comes back. He knows what the organisation knows, so we will be able to work out how to deal with that.”

The student nodded, but he didn’t speak up. He felt like all of this was one big dream and he would wake up in his bed in a few minutes, only to find out that it was all fake. He knew that it wasn’t likely to be that way, but a part of him wished that it was. This was real bad, and he didn’t want to have to deal with that right now. Or ever. 

After a few minutes, Remus came back, deeming it safe enough to return now that he finished his cigarette. “So,” he started as he sat down on the backrest of the remaining chair. “Patty-cake. We need to discuss business.”

Patton made a face at the nickname, but nodded nonetheless. He didn’t say anything, but Remus took this as a sign to continue. 

“Your friends. They’re targets now,” he informed casually. “I don’t think they’re in as much trouble as you are, since you’re the author of the post and thus their prime target. If they can kill you, they will. But your friends are just ways of hurting you, so they’ll be a last resort. Hoping to get a reaction out of you if they can’t find you. Either way, they’ll be watching your friends, they’ll be tracking their phones, tapping them, there will be people following them wherever they go. So you can’t be in contact with them.” 

“Not at all?”

“Not on your own phone, anyways. I might be able to get you a burner that they won’t be able to track, but I’ll have to talk to some people. I’m not risking it outside right now.”

Patton nodded, biting his lip. Sure, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to him, but the news was unpleasant nonetheless. His friends were probably the most important things in his life and if he wouldn’t be able to talk to them for however long… not only would they be worried, but it would also hurt him in the process. He knew it was the safest for him, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. 

“Luckily for you, I have a contact in the organisation,” Crocodile continued, unaware of Patton’s struggles — and if he was aware, he chose to ignore them. “I’ll make sure to get some people on the case that might not be as likely to kill your friends.”

“You can do that?” Patton asked with a slight frown. 

“Caesar isn’t the only person with contacts everywhere,” Remus just said with a smirk. “And his organisation isn’t without its black sheep either. Of course I can do that.”

“Right,” the student said, rubbing his hands together nervously. At least his friends would be safe — hopefully. “Thanks.” 

Virgil noticed how this specific topic made Patton uncomfortable — which he understood. Hearing about how not only you, but also your friends, were in grave danger was never fun. But it was necessary. He had to know what he was dealing with. But that didn’t make it any easier. 

“I think that’s enough for now,” he said, casting a quick look at the journalist. “We have something else to talk about.” He nodded towards the gun on the table, looking up at Remus. 

“What’s there to talk about?” he questioned. “We have the gun, we’re safe for now, what else do we need to say about it?”

“What are we going to do about the gun?”

Remus shrugged. “I don’t know, how about we  _ use  _ it, Mister Doubtfire?”

“We don’t even know what it does.”

“And why should we care?” Remus retorted. “They wanted to use it without knowing what it does, so why not use it against them instead? Why the fuck should we care about what happens to them? If we don’t do anything, they’re gonna kill us so I don’t see why there’s any objections.”

Virgil suppressed the urge to roll his eyes at this comment. The two of them really had different approaches here. While Remus agreed that they needed a plan to take down Caesar, he didn’t seem to be so intent on actually  _ making  _ a plan. Not when it came to this or anything similar, anyways. His plans right now seemed to be ‘Let’s take the gun and use it, who cares about what happens?’. It was as if he was hoping to make a plan without having to make a plan. But that’s now exactly how life works. 

“I was hoping to be able to discuss this and maybe make a plan, but alright,” the hero huffed. “We don’t even know  _ if  _ it works. If it can actually take powers away. What if it doesn’t work? We need to think about backup plans.”

“Yeah, we can do that later,” Crocodile brushed off. “I need some information about Caesar and his little buddies first. When we have that information, we can make a plan and start thinking about backup plans, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Virgil muttered with a shake of his head. “Sure.”

It wasn’t ideal, but it was no use trying to argue this. He needed Remus to make a solid plan about how to kill Caesar and if Remus refused to even try to think of something, he  _ really  _ wouldn’t bother to think of anything. Virgil didn’t exactly have a choice. Besides, he didn’t want to bother Patton with their useless arguing. The kid had enough on his mind. 

The three of them discussed their current position for a little bit longer. It was mostly meant to update Patton; what they wanted to do, what that meant for him, and any other questions he had. Remus and Virgil did manage to discuss a small basis for their plan, but Remus insisted that he needed more information from Dorian just to be sure what they could do and what would be dangerous. Especially since they had just killed Marksman, which might have some… consequences down the road. There was now a gap and Roman needed to fill that somehow. Their situation had changed drastically, so they’d have to wait a few days. Just to see how everything would develop. When they had found out what the consequences of their actions were, they would be safe to discuss the plan, knowing exactly what they were dealing with. 

After that was all said and done, Virgil decided to leave. He still had a bit of a social life, after all. Unlike Remus, who seemed to do nothing at all. 

“Good luck with him,” Virgil said with a smile at Patton as he put on his watch and glasses again. “He might seem like a jerk at first, but he’s really not that bad. Sometimes. He can still be a jerk every now and then.”

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that, yeah?” Remus chimed in with a soft scoff. He shot an amused smile at Virgil, who just give him a sheepish smile in return as his suit formed around his body again. 

“Let me know when you need me again and I’ll try to be there,” the hero said as he walked towards the door. Just before he opened it, he turned invisible, flying off as soon as he was outside. 


	16. You Better Run

A knock sounded on the door to Caesar’s office. The man looked up from the work in front of him, slightly irritated at being disturbed at this time of night, but he knew it was important. He’d ordered the Journalist be taken out a few hours ago. On hearing that his very own twin brother had showed up in the apartment building, seemingly to protect said Journalist, he’d sent in Jamie Marsh — Marksman — with the Crocodile Hunter to finally take him out. Except he hadn’t heard anything from the Marksman since. All he knew was that there had been a lone flash of lightning, minutes after Jamie Marsh had been dispatched. Then, radio silence. Caesar had sent out people to look for him — and in the likely case of death, retrieve the Crocodile Hunter. Most likely, the knock on the door would be someone sharing their findings. They knew better than to disturb him at a time like this — well after midnight. Usually, Roman would have left long ago. The only damn reason he was still here in the first place, was to be there when he heard what had happened to Marsh. 

“Come in,” he called lazily, crossing his legs as the door opened softly. In walked a young woman, dressed in all black with red gloves and a red belt. Clearly a member of the Red Gang. It wasn’t exactly required to wear red to be a part of the gang, but Dragontooth would never wear that colour when doing business. To avoid any associations. So there was no doubt that she was part of the Red Gang.

“Marsh has been found, sir,” she said as she closed the door behind her, walking up to the desk confidently. “He was struck by lightning.”

As expected. It was way too much of a coincidence. A lone lighting strike appearing out of nowhere, right when Marsh was sent out. There wasn’t a single hint of an oncoming thunderstorm. It couldn’t be natural. And it was no coincidence that there was a hero in town who could control the weather. It had to be him. That annoying, meddlesome little fucker. 

“Is he dead?” he asked, keeping his face neutral the way he mostly did. She didn’t need to know everything that went on in his head. 

“Yes, unfortunately.” 

Damn it. That fucking little hero had taken out one of his best men. Especially since Remus had left the organisation, too… He was now bereft of some of the best assassins in the field. He didn’t even know that Alibi was capable of killing. Wasn’t he such a saint? Saving people no matter the cost? Stupid, arrogant piece of shit. 

“And the gun?” His voice remained calm and steady, but it was quite a struggle. There was so much going through his head at the moment. Anger, especially. Or maybe _rage_ was a better word. If he didn’t want to find Alibi before, he sure as hell wanted to find him now. Even if it was just as a plot of revenge for him killing Marksman. 

“Gone.”

God fucking- No, this was fine. This was fine. They could get a new one. Although he wasn’t looking forwards to scheduling another appointment with The Inventor. He didn’t want to see that man yet another time. But maybe… there was a way of finding another way to recreate the gun. Sure, he could send Barrier into battle, but he didn’t want to waste them. They weren’t the best fighter on the team and they had a great position in one of the other departments in their organisation. He couldn’t risk losing them too. Especially if his suspicions were right, and Alibi was working together with Crocodile. It might be a risk, and he wasn’t willing to take that one. 

Luckily, they had Eve. One of their more recent experiments, and probably one of their best breakthroughs so far. She was technically what one might call a cyborg, even though Roman preferred to call her an enhanced human. Because in reality, that’s all they’d done. Sure, they might have replaced some part of her body with technology, but that was all. She was usually used for security reasons. The camera that had replaced one of her eyes was linked to the organisation’s database, able to recognize the face of anyone who had been filed as unwanted. She also had a direct connection to their network, so she could notify anyone nearby when anyone trespassed. On top of that, she had been equipped with a small array of weapons and her vital organs were protected by what was best described as a sort of metal coating. Surely, they could give her a feature similar to the Crocodile Hunter on top of that. 

“Send Morpheus up here,” he ordered with a gesture of his hand. “I need to have a word with them.”

“Of course, sir,” the girl said with a nod, turning to leave the room again, only to stop dead in her tracks when Roman spoke up once more. 

“And get the Top together. Tell them to meet tomorrow morning at ten. It’s urgent.” 

“I will,” she responded. For just a second, she waited, but when it was clear that she wasn’t going to get any more orders, she walked on and left the office, leaving Roman with only his thoughts. 

Morpheus arrived at his office not much later and, just like Roman had said, the two of them had a talk. About how to handle the developments. Caesar didn’t stay in the office long after that, though. With the news of Marsh out, he didn’t have any real reason to stay behind anymore. So, after he’d finished reading through a few documents and files he’d been given, Roman left, going back to his luxurious home to sleep and rest for tomorrow. 

The next morning, Roman was up early, which wasn’t unusual for him. He liked getting up early, when the city was still dark and quiet. There was something strangely calming about it. He liked looking out over the city from his bedroom window. 

He had breakfast and travelled to Brand Tower, so he could get some work done before the meeting. Going over some files, arranging some more meetings, going over a few reports from Thornwall, the usual. About thirty minutes before the meeting was about to start, he made his way over to the meeting room, where he could welcome the rest of the Top.

Roman took his seat at the end of the table, checking his phone to respond to some messages as he waited. 

A few minutes past ten, everyone was present. About ten people where there; representatives of Thornwall, the Red Gang and Dragontooth, the head of intel and a few people responsible for the communication between the different factions of the organisation. Normally, Dorian would have been there, but Roman couldn’t be sure if this man could be trusted. He didn’t want to risk it, so he had decided not to invite Dorian. If he knew Alibi… he couldn’t know about this operation just yet.

“I’m glad you could come here on such short notice,” Caesar started the meeting, looking at the people in the room, all listening intently. “As you are aware, Crocodile has cut ties with us a few weeks ago. I’m sure you don’t need to be reminded of that. Last night, we finally had an encounter with him and we had a chance to kill him. However, as it turns out, Marksman, the man on the case, has been killed in action. Struck by lightning. And the weapon I had made to take care of Crocodile has disappeared as well.” 

He paused a moment to give himself a chance to look at everyone present. When he had given everyone a glance, Caesar continued: “As there’s only one person in the area we know to be able to conjure up lightning, I think it’s safe to say that Alibi and Crocodile are working together, at least to some extent. Whatever they’re trying to do, we need to get to them before they finish it. It has proven difficult to track down Crocodile. Alibi, however, might be an easier catch.”

“With all due respect,” a voice spoke up from the back of the room. “But if we’ve never caught Alibi before, how will we catch him now?”

Roman looked at the source of the noise; one of the members of the Red Gang had spoken up, looking at Caesar with uncertainty. “Because we never actively tried to look for him,” he responded simply. He had prepared this well; he had expected a question like this would come up. “We never went out of our way to find him. If we create a trap for him and lure him out, we will be able to outnumber him and take him in. From there, we will be able to get some information out of him about Crocodile’s whereabouts.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” another voice chimed in. “The trap, I mean.”

Roman turned to whoever had spoken; Remy Cicada, or Morpheus, head of intel. “Oh?” Caesar asked intrigued, raising an eyebrow. “Enlighten me.”

“I think I know Alibi’s real identity,” they said. “I’m not quite sure, but… I have reasons to believe I do.” They paused, waiting for a sign from Roman to continue. After a quick nod from Caesar, they went on. “Virgil Allister. A… friend of mine. I’ve had my suspicions for a little while, but I’ve never found the evidence to prove it with certainty. I do know for a fact that there’s things going on that he won’t tell me. I’m pretty confident that he’s our guy. And, if I am correct, he is certainly working together with Crocodile. Quite closely, I do think.”

Roman nodded, thinking this over. They weren’t entirely sure, but Remy, as head of intel, knew their way with information. If they said they thought this man was Alibi, Caesar was inclined to believe them. And even if it turned out to be wrong, Roman didn’t care about a person in the city more or less. If they were wrong, they would simply get rid of this Virgil person and continue their search for the real Alibi. He wouldn’t lie awake at night because they caught the wrong person. 

“Very well,” he concluded with a nod. “If you say it is warranted, I will get a team to go to this… Virgil’s place as soon as we’ve made some upgrades to Eve.”

Remy nodded. “Go ahead,” they told him. “While I don’t have all the evidence, I really don’t think I’m wrong.”

“Perfect,” Roman smiled, leaning back in his chair as he felt a certain relief wash over him. Remy hadn’t often been wrong, so he was confident that this would be yet another success. “Make a file with all the information you have that might be relevant. Address, work, friends, family… anything we need to know.”

“Will do.”

“And I assume you’ll be able to find out where he’ll be once the team is ready for him?”

“One hundred percent,” Remy promised. Virgil had no reason to suspect them, so they could just straight up ask where he would be working that day. And while it was a shame that it had to come this… Remy also didn’t feel much remorse. It sucked, but that was life in this business. They’d suspected Virgil of being Alibi for a while, so they had time to prepare for a moment like this. Honestly, it was Virgil’s own fault more than anything. _He_ was the one that had to play hero so badly. If he hadn’t interfered with business that wasn’t his own… they wouldn’t be here. 


	17. Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: drinking, mentions of unconsensual experiments and manipulation

Being stuck in a small house when someone out there was trying to kill you, sucked. Being stuck in a small house with someone you didn’t like, when someone out there was trying to kill the both of you, somehow sucked even more. But unfortunately… this is what Remus had signed up for. It was his own damn fault for suggesting that he take the student in. So now… they were here. 

From Remus’ side, he couldn’t stand being around this annoying kid that kept complaining when he tried to smoke. 

From Patton’s side, he was just uncomfortable being around this man that had threatened him the first time they met. As Remus had pointed out the first time Patton shared this,  _ yes _ he had also saved the student’s life, but that didn’t magically undo the fact that he had literally threatened to kill Patton before that. 

Remus didn’t get it, but he also didn’t make an effort to get it. The only reason the journalist was here was so Roman wouldn’t kill him. After everything had been take care of, he could go back home and live his happy little life without ever needing to bother Remus ever again. Until then, he’d have to suck it up and deal with the kid. 

One day, about two days after Patton moved in with Remus, the student found himself trying to find something to drink. Remus had retreated into his bedroom in an attempt to work out how to go about his plan to kill Roman, which he seemingly did not want to do in front of the journalist. This left Patton to fend for himself. He still wasn’t quite familiar with the layout in this place, so he just went into the kitchen to open every drawer and cabinet he could find in the hopes of finding something he could drink.

Eventually, he stumbled upon a cabinet with a couple of bottles, but on further inspection- there wasn’t much for him to choose from. Or- there  was more than enough choice, just not what he was looking for. Royal Crown whiskey, Green Chartreuse, wine, Green Absinthe, vodka and a Polish drink named ‘Spirytus Rektyfikowany’. Patton frowned and picked up the latter bottle, looking at the contents. It was completely clear, and according to the label contained 95% alcohol. Somehow… he was not surprised that Remus would like something like this. 

His curiosity getting the better of him, Patton uncapped the bottle and smelled it carefully, almost flinching back at the strong smell. He had his fair share of alcohol and he could take it, but it was nowhere near  _ 95% _ . Part of him was tempted to try it out, but he wasn’t sure if it was wise to drink a drink this strong without diluting it. But it was so tempting. 

“You might not want to drink that one,” a voice suddenly spoke up, causing Patton to nearly drop the bottle as Remus approached and took it from his hands. “It’s not an easy drink.” After he had spoken, he took one look at the drink and took a sip straight from the bottle. He didn’t grimace in the slightest, even if Patton was sure it had to burn. “Good as the Devil, though.” He winked at Patton as he shoved the bottle back into his hands. “What are you looking for anyways?”

Patton shrugged, not quite sure how to respond. “A drink,” he said simply. Because in fact, that was all he was looking for. Something to drink. He hadn’t envisioned anything but was rather trying to figure out what Remus had and go from there. “You can really drink this like that?”

“ _ I  _ can,” Remus nodded confidently. “ _ You _ can’t. You’re like- five. Have you even had alcohol before?”

Patton shrugged. “A bit, yeah.”

“That’s not enough,” Crocodile decided, making Patton wonder why he cared enough to try and stop him. “You might wanna try something easier. This motherfucker hits like a freight train. I don’t want to call your parents and explain that their baby son died over a bit of alcohol, you see?” 

Patton took a look at the bottle before he turned his eyes to Remus and made a decision he just  _ knew  _ he would regret as he brought the bottle to his lips, taking a small sip of the drink. He coughed slightly, feeling it burn in his mouth and throat. 

“Told you so,” Remus said with a smug snicker as he took the bottle from Patton, prying the cap from his other hand to seal off the drink again. “I must admit, that’s a ballsy move. Bet you’re gonna feel that one, though.”

Oh, Patton didn’t doubt that. He was definitely going to feel that, but it was worth it to prove a point. What was he trying to prove? He wasn’t quite sure himself, but it was  _ something _ . And he was pretty sure that he’d done it. 

“Yeah,” he muttered. “Why do you need all of this anyways?” He gestured towards the cabinet, filled with so many — and such expensive — alcohol bottles that Patton was sure this was worth as much as all his possessions added up. 

“I like them,” Remus shrugged, placing the Spirytus back into the cabinet. “And I’m not going to last all night drinking this shit, so I’ve got some variation.” He closed the cabinet with a loud slam. “Minus the wine. That’s Dee’s poison. I think he just likes it cause it’s  _ classy _ .”

He ended with an eye roll that got the smallest chuckle out of Patton, who carefully snaked his hand back to the cabinet’s door. 

“You have absinthe, though?” the student asked curiously as his fingers curled around the door’s handle. “I’ve wanted to try that.”

Remus’ eyebrows shot up and he let out a surprised chuckle. “ _ You _ ?” he asked as a grin formed on his lips. “My, my, maybe you’re not the innocent little child that I thought you were.” Before Patton could say anything, the former villain opened the cabinet again, reaching forwards to reach for a bottle. “Just this once. But you’re getting it the regular way. I don’t condone unsafe drinking.”

Patton opened his mouth to protest, thought again and closed it. But then, he thought  _ again _ and he opened his mouth yet again. “Didn’t you just drink a 95% drink straight from the bottle?”

“Didn’t you?” the Crocodile retorted with a raised eyebrow. “Besides, it’s not unsafe. Not if you’re not an idiot.”

He spun around and rummaged through some of his cabinets and drawers, getting out a small glass, a weird looking spoon; silver-coloured with a pattern cut out, and a sugarcube. He poured some of the bright green liquid into the class, placed the weird shaped spoon over the glass and put the sugarcube on top of it. Remus then got some water and slowly poured it over the sugarcube, so it would start to dissolve. Finally, when it was mostly dissolved, he stirred the drink with the spoon. Now, it was more of a light green, turbid substance, rather than a bright, clear liquid. 

“There you go,” he said as he handed it to Patton with a cocky grin. “Enjoy.” 

As Patton took the glass in his hands, still studying its contents, Remus grasped the bottle and took a swig, causing Patton to raise an eyebrow. 

“I thought you didn’t condone unsafe drinking,” he commented slyly as he took a small sip of the absinthe. Besides the obvious taste of alcohol, he got a strong hint of anise and sugar. The drink burned but it tasted surprisingly good. Good enough to drink it regularly? Patton wasn’t sure yet. But it was alright. 

Remus chuckled as he set down the bottle. He leaned back against the counter and studied the student in front of him intently, an amused smile playing on his lips. “You know what? Maybe you’re not so bad after all,” he concluded with an approving nod. “It’s not unsafe if you know what you’re doing. Aka I get to do it but you need to stay the fuck away from it or I’ll have your head. Got it?”

In response, Patton took another sip of his drink, giving the other a long look. “Sure,” he decided, mostly because he wasn’t sure he  _ ever  _ wanted to try this drink undiluted. It was good enough as it was; he didn’t want to know how it would be straight out of the bottle. Not yet, anyways. He wasn’t going to be stuck with Remus forever, so there would be time to try it out himself if he so desired. “Because you asked so nicely.”

This comment earned another laugh out of Remus, who was starting to think he misjudged the student. He liked someone who could shoot back a remark without second thought. At first, he’d thought Patton was one of those typical goody two-shoes students. You know the kind; healthy schedule, always on time with deadlines, never said anything bad about anyone for fear of offending someone. But maybe he wasn’t that much of a prissy after all. Good. Maybe this time together could become slightly bearable, then. 

“Good,” Crocodile muttered, ruffling up Patton’s hair as he put the bottle of absinthe away, but not before taking another small sip himself. “You’ve had enough of this for now. Get some water when you finish that one.”

“Why’d you care?” Patton murmured as he took another sip of his drink. It wasn’t meant as a comment for Remus to hear, but it seemed like that had failed. From the way that the other straightened his back as he got up and looked at the student with this unreadable expression told him enough. 

“I’m not a complete dick, you know?” he asked, titling his head as he locked eyes with the student. “Only when I have to be. And you just had some of the strongest drinks in that cabinet.”

“I know, I know.” Patton placed the now empty glass back on the counter, mostly to avoid looking at Remus. “I didn’t- mean it like that, it’s just-”

“It’s just that I can’t care for people, right?” Remus interrupted, his voice coming out harsher than he’d intended. “I’ve done bad shit, so I can’t care.”

Patton shook his head. “I just thought… you didn’t like me,” he said softly, still not looking at Remus, who seemed to be trying to make two holes in the back of Patton’s head just by his stare. 

“Well, I mean-” He would be lying if he said he  _ did  _ like Patton, and both of them knew that, but it wasn’t that he  _ hated _ the kid, either. He just… didn’t care about his general existence much. Yes, he saved his life, but that was more out of a sense of obligation and a tactical advantage rather than the innate desire to save this kid. But he also wasn't completely apathetic about him. 

Finally, Remus sighed and grabbed a glass out of another cabinet, filling it up with water. “I’m not crazy about you,” he huffed as he pushed the glass into one of the student’s hands. “But that doesn’t mean that I’m a dick. Only if someone’s deserved it. I’m  _ not  _ my brother.”

With those words, Remus turned around and walked out of the kitchen in the direction of the living room. Patton looked down at the glass of water in his hand and turned around just in time to see the other retreating. Okay, maybe he  _ could _ care more than Patton had given him credit for. But he was… still conflicted about him. 

As he took a sip of water, the Journalist left the kitchen to join Remus in the living room. The ex-villain had taken his seat on the chair closest to the wall, so Patton sat down on the couch, giving Remus a quick glance. 

“Look, I really didn’t mean that,” he said softly as he sat his glass down on the table in front of him. “This situation is just… weird, okay? And I still don’t know where I stand in your… regard. It’s just… really weird to me.”

Remus scoffed as he turned to look at Patton. “I bet,” he nodded. “If only you’d listened to me, huh? Then you wouldn’t have been here.”

“Which would also mean I wouldn’t have gotten to try that absinthe,” Patton said, not quite knowing where he was trying to go with this. “Or that- that…”

“Spirytus,” Remus finished for him, giving him a smile that was the mix between a scowl and a genuine smile. “Is that all you’re getting out of this? The booze?”

Patton shrugged. “I haven’t been able to find anything exciting in here yet,” he commented with a careful smile. “So I suppose so.”

At this, Crocodile laughed, leaning his head against the backrest of the chair. “Alright then, I’ll take it,” he grinned as he turned back to the student. “Glad to hear my efforts of being a good host are appreciated.”

“They are,” Patton nodded. “I just feel like it would be nicer if people weren’t trying to kill me.”

Remus nodded in sympathy. “Yeah,” he just said. “That brings us back to the point where you should have fucking listened to me, doesn’t it?” 

“I suppose it does.”

Then, a silence fell between the two of them and for the first time since he was here, Patton felt like it was a more comfortable silence. Not fully comfortable, but at least… not as tense and awkward as usually these past days. 

“Remus,” Patton started as he reached for his glass again, trying to make some conversation now things seemed to be… improving slightly between them. “If you don’t mind me asking… how did you get your powers?”

He understood that it might be a personal question, but he’d always been intrigued by anything superpowered, and this was a question that had crossed his mind multiple times. 

Remus looked at Patton with a smile on his lips — whether it was amused, mocking, or anything else, the student couldn’t tell. “You really wanna know?” he asked, shifting so he could look Patton in the eyes.

“I mean… if you want to,” the student said, tilting his head slightly. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to but…”

“If we’re gonna do this,” the Crocodile started as he pushed himself up. “I’m gonna need a drink.”

He left the living room in a few long steps. When he came back shortly after, he held a glass with some whiskey in his left hand. Remus let out a soft huff as he sat down, crossing his legs. 

“Very well,” he started as he gave Patton a long look. “I was about your age. Nineteen, I think. Twenty maybe. My total dickface of a brother came up to me. He’d been in a grey matter incident a year prior, you wrote about that one, actually. It gave him powers and turned him into the world's biggest jerk, you know how that goes.” As Remus paused to sip his drink, Patton nodded, despite definitely not knowing this. “So, this jerkbag comes up to me. Says he’d been talking to a friend of his, some genius science nerd I only met once. Then, he tells me they have this genius idea, some huge fucking breakthrough or something, and he wants to show me. Now, I start to wonder why he’d tell me, since we hadn’t been on the best terms for the past year, but my naive dumbass still accepts. He won’t tell me shit about what’s going on, though. I join him to this weird friend’s lab anyways. He interned somewhere or something, I don’t know. Don’t care either. I get there, they talk about- whatever and start taking some tests. I black out and when I wake up, I’m strapped to one of those goddamn medical tables. Turns out, they didn’t want to show off, but they just needed a fucking labrat. They had this like- serum they needed to test. And who better than yours truly? It’s not like they gave a damn about me so if something went wrong… who was there to care?”

He leaned back in his seat with a bitter smile as he took a large swig of his drink, nearly emptying the entire glass. 

“Oh, I- I’m sorry,” Patton said with an empathic grimace. That did not sound… good. To be experimented on like that? That sounded horrible. 

“It’s whatever,” the other muttered as he finished his drink, setting it back on the table with a loud clang. “If all goes well, I’ll make him pay for everything real quick.” There was a sort of wishful expression in his eyes that Patton hadn’t seen before. 

“What do you mean?” 

Remus looked up, seemingly remembering where he was as he turned back to the student. “Oh, well… you see, the bastard that we’re hunting down, Caesar, the Great Dick-tator of the town? He’s my brother.”

There was a beat. Remus and Caesar? They were related? That was… quite the bombshell. Maybe it shouldn’t have come as such a surprise to him, and yet… 

“Oh,” Patton said, not exactly sure how to respond to something like this. “Then why- if you don’t mind… if you hate him so much, why stick around for so long? Why stick around  _ ever _ ?”

“Oh Remus, you wouldn’t  _ leave  _ me, right?” the Crocodile said in a high pitched voice, clearly mocking his older brother. “With mum and dad gone, we only have each other, you can’t turn your back to  _ family _ , right? Remember when I punched that guy harassing you in eighth grade? Why can’t you do that for  _ me _ ?” Remus rolled his eyes and threw his hands up in frustration, returning back to his normal voice. “He’s a manipulative jerk and I was so young and dumb that I bought into his stupid shit. Eventually, I stopped caring. The job paid well and I couldn’t give a crap about anyone else anymore.”

Patton nodded with a slight frown. He couldn’t imagine what it had to be like growing up with Caesar. But then again… Remus wasn’t the most moral person, either. Though maybe… it sounded like he was a better person as a kid. Caesar still sounded like a dick, though. “I’m sorry.”

Remus shook his head, reaching for his glass again, only to realise it was empty. “Don’t be,” he responded sharply. “That’s just life. Fucks us all over. Except you. You’re still good.”

“Except for the fact that your brother is trying to kill me,” the journalist pointed out as he grabbed his glass of water and held it out to Remus. 

“But you forget I’m gonna kill him,” he said as he took the glass, looking at it for a second before taking a careful sip. “And when I take care of his organisation and all of that shit, you can go back to living your cute little life.”

Patton was… doubtful, to say the least. The organisation would still know who he was. Unless Remus managed to take out the entire organisation, going back to living his life was nothing more than a lovely dream. But he didn’t say that out loud. Maybe because it was a dream he himself was still desperately clinging onto, even if he knew it was never going to happen. A truly normal life seemed to be out of his reach now. 


	18. Make Me Offers That I Can't Refuse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Mind control, stabbing

The Inventor was busy with his latest project; a suit for yet another one of those new heroes that seemed to be popping up everywhere lately. Young kid with a dozen naive ambitions. Probably wouldn’t last for long, but that was none of his concern. They had the money to afford him, and that was what mattered. 

Somewhere in the middle of his work, someone entered his workplace. With an annoyed scowl on his face, the man looked up. He was less than amused at the fact that someone just bust in like this. He thought he made a pretty clear policy of “don’t walk in whenever you want, make a fucking appointment first”. But there were still idiots who didn’t seem to be capable of understanding that. Hence the unannounced company in his lab right now. 

He knew the visitor, but only slightly. But even then, The Inventor could recognize them easily. There weren’t many people that insisted on wearing their sunglasses inside, after all. Morpheus had come in here a few times, but not often. They weren’t so involved in the tech side of things. They only stopped by when it mattered to their job. Except those times, they’d made an appointment. 

“I don’t think I have to remind you of my policy, Morpheus,” The Inventor spoke with an annoyed huff as he reluctantly turned in his seat to face the visitor. “If you want a commission, make an appointment first.”

“Oh no, I’ll be fine,” Morpheus grinned as they drew closer. “But thank you, though.”

The Inventor raised an eyebrow as he studied the person in front of him. Their attitude wasn’t that much different from the other few times they’d stopped by, but The Inventor still knew that something was up. He didn’t know why, he just… _knew_. 

“I’m not sure you know the meaning of ‘make an appointment’,” The Inventor deadpanned, already turning back to his work. 

“Well, I don’t need a commission,” Morpheus said as they stopped not far from Logan, leaning on his desk. “I just have a question.”

Slowly, The Inventor looked up from his work and turned to his visitor, less than amused. He was one second away from single handedly throwing them out. He might be shorter than they were, but he could easily overpower them if he had to. 

“Well then,” he spoke dangerously slow. He wasn’t happy with this situation, but he might as well hear them out. At least in that case, he wouldn’t have to deal with them bothering him at a later time. “Ask away.”

“Awesome,” Morpheus grinned. “You see- we got a commission from you recently, the Crocodile Hunter-”

“I remember, yes,” The Inventor interrupted quickly, earning a glare from the other, before they continued.

“And we’ve been having some… complications. So we were hoping we could get the information on the gun so we can fix it? We are willing to pay.”

Now that was a good one. He didn’t take Caesar or anyone of his team to be a guy with a taste in humour, but he was clearly wrong. Because this had to be the best joke he’d ever heard. Did they really think they could pay him for information on how his designs worked? So they could avoid spending money on him any time something broke down? Did they take him for an idiot, or were _they_ so stupid?

“If you have a problem with the tech I designed, you can make an appointment and I will take a look at it,” The Inventor shrugged. “My designs are not for sale, Morpheus.”

Next to him, Morpheus sighed, reaching up to take off their sunglasses. “It was worth a shot,” they muttered to themself as they looked up, turning their attention to The Inventor, who had already averted his attention, turning back to the dark green suit on the desk in front of him. “Look- we’ll pay you a generous amount. What did you get for the gun? I’ll make it five times that. Six, even.”

It was a dumb deal. He wouldn’t take that offer. And Remy knew it. They just needed his attention for long enough that they could make eye contact. 

And as it turned out, it worked. The Inventor stopped in his movements and turned to Remy, looking at them with an unreadable expression. “Make it ten times,” he finally said. “Maybe then, I’ll consider it.”

“That’s not gonna do it, I’m afraid,” Remy said with a slight grimace. “But you know what? Here’s a deal” — their eyes momentarily glowed red as they continued — “how about you give it to me for free? Because we’re friends? Just give me the designs and explain how it works, yeah?” 

There was a beat before The Inventor turned around, searching for the file on the Crocodile Hunter. “It’s based on Barrier’s DNA,” he explained, rummaging through his stuff. “It emits a low energy signature. When it’s activated, this radiation can interfere with the powers of others. I just had to find out its wavelength and recreate that. I have developed a particle with the same signature, the technology in the gun amplifies it so it will cancel out the powers of anyone it hits. That is my hypothesis, anyway. There is a fair chance that it will affect others in the vicinity, but I can’t be sure.”

He finally located the file he was looking for, pulling it out of a drawer on his desk and holding it out to Remy, who snatched it out of his hands with a grin. 

“Thank you,” they said in a sing-song voice. They hid the file underneath their leather jacket and turned around, ready to leave without saying another word. But when the two broke eye contact, Remy’s powers also lost their effect as well, snapping The Inventor back into the real world as he became aware of the trick the other had just pulled.

“You tricky little…”

He looked around and grabbed the first thing he could find; a knife laying on his desk. Before either of them even noticed what was happening, The Inventor had stabbed the weapon into Remy’s shoulder, getting a surprised and very much annoyed growl out of them as they turned around, pulling the knife out of their shoulder. 

“Oh, you have some gall,” they hissed as they grabbed The Inventor’s wrist tightly before he could get another weapon — because he had many of those laying around. 

“I could say the same about you,” The Inventor simply responded as he tried to pull his wrist free. His eyes darted across the room, trying to figure out what would be his best chance at defense. Before he could do anything, though, Remy grabbed his jaw with their free hand — earning a sharp hiss at the sudden movement. 

Even though they only made eye contact for a second or so, it was just enough for Remy to breathe out a low: “Stay still.” Their eyes flashed red for a second as they did so, and The Inventor didn’t have much of a choice anymore. “Good, now listen closely.” They leaned in a bit, grinning and definitely enjoying this power a little bit too much. “You’re going to forget any of this happened, yeah? And you’re going to want to take any job from us, and us alone. It’s always been that way. You understand?”

The Inventor nodded slowly. “I understand.”

“Splendid,” Remy said with a broad grin as they got up again. “It’s a pleasure doing business with you.”

They then spun around and, without another word, left the room, leaving The Inventor behind.


	19. Disturb You in the Dark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Breaking in, some violence, restraining, kidnapping, passing out

A little more than a week after the incident at Patton’s house, Virgil found himself working at home. Not that this was a surprise, especially since he had finished restoring the painting two days ago. No, this was just relevant for narrative purposes, so I felt like it was important to point this out. 

Since he had finished the painting, Virgil did not need to be anywhere on time. This meant that he could finally sleep in a little; something he really needed after these past weeks. Things had been hectic ever since Remus approached him, so a little bit of sleep extra was very welcome. 

When he woke up one particular morning, a little before ten AM, he saw he’d received a few texts from Remy:

**_Shady bitch:_ ** _ Heyyy xo _

**_Shady bitch:_ ** _ You still working on that painting? I thought I could maybe stop by and bring some lunch over?? _

**_You:_ ** _ not anymore. just finished a few days back _

**_You:_ ** _ lunch sounds good tho. you can come over to my place? _

**_You:_ ** _ or we can meet in town somewhere _

**_Shady bitch:_ ** _ I can come over!  _

**_Shady bitch:_ ** _ Say around one?  _

**_You:_ ** _ see you then (: _

**_Shady bitch:_ ** _ xo _

After their conversation, Virgil finally dragged himself out of bed. It was ten am right now, so if Remy would come over around one, that meant he had about three hours left to kill until then. So, if he got ready now, he could make some good progress on the one commission he still had left before they would be here. Maybe he could even continue the work on his original painting he had started sketching out yesterday. It would be the first original work he would make in a while. Things had been so busy lately… it would be really nice to work on something that was completely him. Not someone else’s painting, or the wishes of someone else, but fully  _ him _ . He was honestly looking forwards to this. He liked doing commissions, but his own work gave him a little bit more freedom and more space to experiment with what he wanted. 

The time quickly passed by as he worked on his art. At ten to one, his phone went off with a warning he had set for himself, knowing very well that he would lose track of time if he hadn’t. And while he had a doorbell that Remy could ring to signal him of their arrival, he wanted to take some time to finish up whatever it was he would be working on, and he would probably need a few minutes to do that. So, as not to let Remy wait outside for another ten minutes, he’d be prepared. 

Just as he was finishing things up, Virgil heard a loud noise in the hallway downstairs. A loud creak, followed by several bangs and crashes. His heart leaping in his chest, the man got up from his chair and silently left his office. He softly sneaked towards the staircase, hearing voices downstairs. He had to lean forwards slightly to be able to look into the hallway below, but when he did, he saw the front door broken down, laying on the ground. In the middle of the hallway, there were three people. Red Bandit; a man dressed entirely in red — in case you were wondering where his name came from — with only his eyes visible, Barrier, the person Remus had talked to him about, and Dynamo, dressed in her dark blue suit, with bright blue streaks like lightning running down the sleeves and legs. 

Just before Virgil jumped back again, he locked eyes with Red Bandit, who had seen movement from the corners of his eyes. Virgil heard a soft voice followed by quick footsteps on the staircase, quickly getting closer. Panic starting to flare up, Virgil rushed in the direction of his bedroom, hoping to be able to get to his suit before the villains would catch up to him. But almost as soon as he had the thought, before he could even try to turn invisible, he saw the shadow of Red Bandit looming over him. 

Red Bandit was strongly connected to the Red Gang — which is also the reason for them being called the Red Gang. He was an extremely skilled fighter, and on top of that, he possessed superhuman agility, superhuman durability and superhuman reflexes, peak condition and enhanced healing. In other words: he was a superhuman fighter. There was no way that Virgil could beat him in a fair, hand to hand fight. 

So now, he had a dilemma. Either, Virgil could use his powers to become invisible and get his suit. That would give him an advantage, but at the same time, would expose his real identity. Or he could not do any of that and try to fight a battle he knew he would lose. It was honestly not a difficult decision to make. 

Virgil wanted to do exactly that. Turn invisible, get his suit, fight the battle. But, just as soon as he had turned invisible, even before he could turn around and run, Red Bandit lunged at him, effectively pinning him to the ground. 

“Don’t think you’re going anywhere, you little shit,” Red Bandit hissed, doing everything in his power to keep Virgil down, despite not being able to see him. 

Virgil didn’t respond, but just took this opportunity to punch the Bandit in the face, since his left arm was completely free. The villain couldn’t see it, so he couldn’t dodge either. Superhuman reflexes or not. With him off guard, Virgil focussed on the air currents he could feel. And while the air flow wasn’t as strong inside as it was outside, there was more than enough to push the Bandit away, into the wall on the other side of the small corridor. Even for someone with superhuman durability, almost breaking through a wall took a moment to recover from. Virgil took this time to get up and run towards his room, but luck did not seem to be on his side. 

A slight ripple travelled through the air and as Virgil got up, he could see himself slowly becoming visible again. “Fuck,” he hissed, looking back. Red Bandit had definitely noticed him and footsteps were heard coming up the stairs. Getting his suit now would be useless. It would take too long, and he would be surrounded by the time his suit had formed. Even with his suit, if Barrier was here, he couldn’t use his powers. Fighting all three of them would be a lost cause. So all that was left now, was to jump out of the window and hope he could still use his powers to fly away. 

Dynamo appeared at the top of the stairs, just as Virgil tried to make a break for it. He tried to run, but then he felt something wrap itself around his wrist, something like a whip, but it felt like it had some sort of current. Electrical, or some other kind of energy. One of Dynamo’s energy signatures. He’d never had to face her, but he had heard of her powers here and there. She could control these whips of bright blue energy as if they were simply another part of her body.

Another whip wrapped itself around Virgil’s other wrist, pulling him back. He still tried to move forwards, or shake himself free of the whips. But no matter what he tried, there was no way he could free himself. 

“I got him,” Dynamo said, their voice slightly strained, but it didn’t seem like they had any issue with keeping him in place. Even when Virgil tried to move forwards with all his might, he couldn’t move an inch. Not without fearing he might dislocate his shoulders. 

Before he knew it, a foot pushed against the inside of his knees, causing his knees to buckle. When he was on the ground, two hands wrapped around his wrists, just below where the whips held him, pulling his arms down and ultimately pinning them on his back. 

“I got this,” the voice of the Red Bandit spoke, just as Virgil felt something click around his wrists — although he heard it rather than actually feeling it. The whips disappeared and almost immediately, Virgil started to struggle. Now that he had more room to move, he felt more comfortable to resist again. There was no way he would let these people take him to… wherever they would take him. He had no idea why they came here, what they wanted. And he wasn’t keen on finding out, either. If Barrier was involved… it wasn’t going to be anything good.

It wasn’t long before Virgil found out that his wrists had been cuffed together. He felt a strong resistance as he tried to move his arms, giving off a strong shock when he pulled too hard. The hero gasped softly and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to drown out the sharp stinging sensation that travelled from his wrists through his entire body, leading a strong pain wherever it went. 

“Dynamo, do your thing,” a voice spoke behind him. Virgil didn’t recognize it, but he reasoned it had to belong to Barrier. It couldn’t be either of the two others, so his options were... nonexistent. 

“With pleasure,” the other said smugly before a whip, similar to the ones from before, wrapped itself around Virgil’s throat. Squeezing slightly, but not enough to cut off his full air supply. Another whip wrapped itself around his stomach. The next moment, a strong current travelled through the whips and for a second or two, Virgil was aware of the near excruciating pain that followed. It spread through his entire body, making it feel as if his insides were on fire. After just a few seconds, however, he blacked out.


	20. End of Eras

Roman looked around as someone knocked on his door, disturbing his thoughts as he looked out over the city. The knock had been soft and careful, as if they were scared to offend the man or make any other mistake. Definitely not one of the higher ups, then. They knew better than that. They weren’t so shy and timid. He hated that and they knew that. Roman couldn’t help but wonder what could possibly be so important that someone from the lower ranks had been sent up to his office — because he just knew that they wouldn’t be here voluntarily. He had quite the reputation in the organisation, justified, obviously. He wasn’t opposed to that reputation, but it did mean that all the younger recruits were terrified of the man. And they were especially terrified of being sent to his office, fearing that it would be the last time they’d ever set foot in there. Or anywhere. However, as Roman hadn’t called for anyone to be sent up to take their life energy, there had to be something going on that he needed to know of. He wondered… 

“Come in,” he called out, turning around fully to look at the door. 

It was opened carefully, and a young boy came in. Red Gang member, probably in his late teens. He’d been sent by the Bandit, then. Could it be they’d come back from their mission already? That would be significantly quicker than any of them had expected. 

“I… I had to tell you that the Bandit is back,” the kid said, almost too afraid to look Caesar in his eyes — as he should be. “They have the target.”

A smirk grew on Roman’s face. So, it was true, then. They captured Alibi. Finally. After all these years… 

“Thank you,” he said with a nod. “Tell them to bring him to interrogation room A, I will be with them shortly. And make sure intel gets me the file on Virgil Allister.”

The kid nodded and immediately left, closing the door behind him. Roman, in the meantime, turned to his phone and checked on Eve’s location, sending an order to make her way to that same interrogation room A. He texted a few people in some of the lower ranks, ordering them to take up the guard. Eve had been stood outside, making sure that no intruders would come in. With her now needed to contain Alibi, he needed to fill the hiatus by raising the security level to maximum. Only when that was done, did he leave the room to make his way over to where Alibi was being detained, feeling awfully cheerful. Or perhaps, victorious would be a better way of describing it. I’m not sure he had the capability of feeling  _ actually _ cheerful. But, however you want to phrase it: Caesar was in a good mood. And that was never a good sign. 

When he made it to the interrogation room, Eve was already positioned outside the room, her back to the door. Red Bandit and Dynamo were waiting outside. 

“So, the mission was a success, then?” he asked as a form of greeting, turning to the two of them. 

“Even easier than I imagined,” Dynamo responded smugly, sending a grin at the Bandit as she spoke. 

“It was surprisingly smooth,” the Bandit confirmed with a single nod. He had taken his mask off in the meantime, since it was way more practical, and easier to breathe, revealing a face scarred from many battles. “We can confirm this is the one, though. He tried to get away using his powers, sneaky little shit.”

“Perfect,” Caesar smirked, turning around when he heard someone carefully calling out to him. Everything just was looking up for him, wasn’t it? Minus the fact that he’d lost two of his best people these past months, that is. 

“The file you asked for, sir,” a nameless member of the intel department said carefully, handing him a small binder. 

“Splendid,” he nodded, taking the binder from them. “Eve, let me know when you detect any movement in there.”

Eve nodded, her body remaining unmoving otherwise. “I will, boss,” she said in her monotone voice. 

“I want you two to call in Dragon,” Roman ordered as he turned back to the two villains in front of him. “And contact Parasite, tell her to be prepared to get over here should we need her.” He turned around, already ready to leave and read all through the file on the oh-so-great hero in their interrogation room. “Oh,” he realised, turning around suddenly. “And get Deceit on the site. Tell him to get ready for interrogation.”

The two nodded as he spun around again, both muttering their own agreements before going their own way to execute the orders he had given them. 


	21. Blood in the Water

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: (water) torture, mention of suffocation

Virgil blinked his eyes open, his head hurting like all hell. What happened? And more importantly… where was he? 

The first thing he truly noticed, was that he was sitting in a chair, his hands shackled together behind his back and when he tried to move them, he felt that they were also bound to the backrest of the chair. And his feet were tied to the legs of the chair, allowing him no space to move. 

Slowly, the events of what happened started to come back. He was at home, wrapping up some work, when the door to his apartment was busted open. He remembered… Barrier… the person from the picture Remus sent. Red Bandit. Dynamo. What happened after that… he didn’t remember. He was here. Wherever ‘here’ was. He remembered he was supposed to meet with Remy- shit, _Remy_. What would they think when they came to his place to find the door busted open and the place all empty?

He tried to use his powers to set him free in any kind. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do or how he would be able to rescue himself but he wasn’t going to sit here and do nothing. However, it got quite clear that he wasn’t able to use his powers. If he focussed enough, Virgil could feel the air moving around him and he felt the electricity and the temperature, but he couldn’t manipulate them, he couldn’t change them. It was as if he was looking through a bulletproof window at a scene he could never access. No matter what he would try, the window would not break. So… maybe he was really stuck in this room. At least until he could figure out where he was and what was going on. Maybe if he knew what was going on, he would be able to make a plan.

It wasn’t long until the door opened and a few people walked in. One of them — was she a person? Or maybe she was a robot, Virgil couldn’t be quite sure — positioned herself in one of the corners in the room, hands behind her back. A young, blonde woman walked behind his chair, taking up a position there. She was probably no older than twenty-five. The two men stopped in front of him. One of them, the one with burn marks on the left side of his face, had to be Dorian. The man Remus mentioned. So, if that was him, would that mean the other man in front of him was… 

“Virgil Allister,” said man called out, looking at him with a smug look on his face. “At last. After more than five years. It's an honour to finally meet the great saviour of this city.”

He made a mocking bow, a smirk forming on his lips as he straightened his back again, making eye contact with Virgil to make sure that the hero actually saw how he derided him. 

“Caesar,” Virgil hissed through gritted teeth, glaring at the man before him. He hadn’t seen this man before, but he just knew it was Caesar. Unbelievably irritating attitude, awfully confident, thinking he could get away with everything? Yeah, that just had to be Caesar. And now he got a chance to look at the man, Virgil did notice some similarities to Remus. Same eyes, nose, same stupid smirk. Although he looked younger. Probably to do with the regenerating effect of stealing life from others. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

He wondered how Caesar found him. How he knew who he was and where he lived. Although… the last bit shouldn’t be hard once they knew his identity. Caesar had people everywhere; once they knew would he really was, he would be able to figure out where he lived without problems. But _how_ did they find out who he was? Immediately his brain went to the only solution he could think of: Remus told them. This entire operation had been a trap. But that was ridiculous. He knew it was. This act had gone on for way too long. Why wouldn’t Remus tell Caesar immediately after Virgil told him his name? Why bother to save Patton, why make up the entire issue with the Crocodile Hunter? No… he couldn’t have… right? That was too much, even for Crocodile’s dramatics. 

“Let’s just say, a little birdie told me you were working together with my dear brother,” Caesar responded, eyeing the hero before him with a sense of pride in his eyes. “Care to speak up?”

“You have a brother?” Virgil asked in a low voice. Definitely not working together, then. “I thought you crawled straight from Hell.”

Roman laughed softly at this comment, clasping his hands behind his back. "Oh I did, minus the straight part, then," he grinned. "He just followed me up here."

“He’s an idiot then,” Virgil huffed. “I’d be relieved to finally be free from you.”

“I’ve got to admit, dear Alibi, you’ve got a fighting spirit,” he said. “I like it. It’s going to make this so much more fun.”

Virgil knew that he had to be scared here. Maybe terrified. For fuck’s sake, this was Caesar! But he wasn’t. No, he was angry, irritated, and a little worried for Remus and Patton. Caesar seemed to know he worked with Remus. He would want to find him. He’d do anything to get this information, he wouldn’t hold back from using… enhanced interrogation tactics. And sooner or later, there would be a moment that Virgil would break. If only he could warn Remus somehow. 

“Gee, thanks,” he said with an eye roll. “You sure know how to make someone feel welcome.”

Caesar just smirked, looking at Virgil with what seemed to be actual glee in his eyes. “You are a very esteemed guest, after all,” he retorted. “I would hate it if you felt unwelcome for even a second.”

“I will let you know if that’s ever the case.”

At this comment, Roman gave another chuckle. “Much appreciated. Now-” He clapped his hands together; a cue to changed the topic. “I’m going to give you one chance to tell me where Remus is,” he negotiated, but Virgil shook his head. 

“I don’t know who you’re talking about,” he insisted. Caesar would have to break him to pieces if he wanted to get this information out of him. You could say so much about Remus, but he didn’t deserve to die. And giving up his location would mean an imminent death. No matter what, Virgil was going to do his best to prevent that. 

Roman hummed, turning to the man beside him. “Opinions?” 

Dorian looked at Caesar for a second, before turning to Virgil. The two of them locked eyes, and Virgil could see a certain hesitation in the other. He wasn’t sure if he needed to tell the truth. If he had to tell Caesar that he was lying, or cover for him and say that he was telling the truth. 

In a split second, Virgil decided to risk it and he shook his head, almost unnoticeable to the others. If Dorian was really with Remus, he’d want to help him. And lying to Caesar _would_ certainly help him, but it was also risky. Virgil knew that he could stall at least a little bit. He could handle _something_. Hopefully, Dorian would be able to get to Remus in the meantime. 

“He…” Dorian halted for a second, giving Virgil a minute nod to show that he understood. “He’s lying.”

“Of course he is,” Caesar smirked victoriously, giving Alibi a malicious grin that sent shivers down his spine. He then gave Dorian another look and nodded his head towards the door, giving a silent order that the other clearly understood. He quickly made his way out of the room. 

He wasn’t gone for very long, and when he came back, he brought a small basin of water, placed on a wooden stand on wheels. Virgil eyed it for a second or two, feeling his heartbeat picking up. He did _not_ like where this was going. Not at all. The basin was wheeled in front of Virgil and Dorian went back to his place next to Caesar again.

Then, Caesar turned to the woman who had taken up her place behind Virgil. He’d almost forgotten she was there, until this very moment. 

“Ray,” he spoke. “Do your thing.”

“Gladly,” this ‘Ray’ answered smugly, a hint of excitement lacing her voice. Virgil had an idea of what this ‘thing’ was, and he had to admit… he was less than thrilled about it. 

The next thing he was aware of, was a hand at the back of his head, pushing him forwards. He just managed to take in a gasp of air before his head was pushed underwater. 

At first, it was fine. He could hold his breath for a little while, even if it would become difficult rather quickly. And it went on even beyond that. Soon enough, his air started to run out, his chest starting to hurt more and more, trying to get that final bit of air out before he would _actually_ run out. He started to feel lightheaded, and he was starting to feel like he would pass out, but still he couldn’t get his head up above the water. 

Eventually, though, the hand holding him down grabbed on to his hair, finally pulling his head up. Virgil finally broke the surface with a gasp, his lungs gratefully taking in all the oxygen that they could before it would be taken away again. 

After a nod from Caesar, the woman held Virgil’s head under water once more. This time, it was significantly sooner that he started having a bad time. If only he could still use his powers. He might have been able to control the oxygen in the water to get a little more air, but no matter how he tried, he couldn’t succeed. 

After a few times of this, Caesar held up his hand, locking eyes with Ray for a moment. She complied, keeping a grip on Virgil’s hair, raising his head in an uncomfortable position. Roman took a few steps closer to the hero, crouching so he could look him in the eyes. “Do you have anything to say now?”

Virgil took a few breaths, trying to steady his breathing at least a little bit, because he knew that this was nowhere near over. “Go… fuck yourself,” he bit out between ragged breaths. 

The only response Roman gave him, was an eyebrow raise and smug smirk before he got to his feet again. “Very well,” he said with a nod to Ray, who took this as a sign to push Virgil’s head below the surface once more. 

This time around, Virgil started noticing the water seemed to be heating up. It could very well be his mind playing tricks on him — maybe it was the stress, or the lack of oxygen, both of those or something entirely different — but he could swear that the water was actually getting _warmer_. 

This suspicion was confirmed when he broke the surface again not much later. His skin tingled slightly, starting to get irritated by the water's temperature, and the air definitely felt cooler compared to the water. Through his squinted eyes, Virgil saw a hand in the water — it belonged to Ray, so it wasn’t a severed hand, don’t worry. Though that wouldn’t be too out of character for them. The hand gave off the slightest red glow. It was barely visible, but it was there. And instantly, he realised what was going on. 

However, the hero didn’t have much time to think about it, because his head was, once again pushed into the water, which had now significantly warmed up. It was now at the point that it was _highly_ uncomfortable, aggravating his skin to the point where Virgil was sure it would leave a mark if this went on much longer. 

He was pushed under a third time, however, Ray — who Virgil had now deduced was probably the villain Dragon — had stopped heating up the water with her powers, so it had cooled off ever so slightly. But only a little bit; it was still the worst thing Virgil had ever experienced. No matter how he trashed against the restraints, trying to get free somehow, there was nothing he could do. 

By the time he was finally pulled up again, Virgil’s face seemed to be on _fire_. It hurt way more than he could ever have imagined, and he was sure his skin was scalded at this point. But it wasn’t as if anyone here cared. 

“That’s enough for now, Ray,” Roman ordered as he held up a hand. “We want to keep him around for a little bit.”

A small grumble was heard behind Virgil, followed by the hand holding his head up by his hair suddenly release him. This caused his chin to drop to his chest suddenly, since the one thing keeping it up had disappeared. The hero coughed as he slowly lifted his head, noticing how it felt heavier than it should. Both of Ray’s hands came to rest on his shoulders, ready to interfere if he tried anything. 

Virgil couldn’t help but notice that one of her hands — the one she’d used to warm up the water — was warmer than the other.

He glared at Roman as he took a step closer, crouching before him. “Anything you have to say for yourself now, Virgil?”

He hated how his name sounded coming from Caesar of all people. He hated that Caesar was just able to use his name freely now. Despite everything going on right now, he wouldn’t let himself get beaten down that easily. He wouldn’t give Roman the pleasure. 

“Yeah,” the hero hissed between hurried breaths. “Go to hell.”

A smile found its way to Caesar’s lips, but it didn’t seem to be able to carry through to his eyes. His eyes carried a dangerous rage, predicting nothing good in Virgil’s future. Not that Virgil cared, though. As long as he would be stuck down here, things would suck. Whether he pissed off Roman or not. They needed him alive if they wanted a chance at finding Remus anyways, so there was some sort of guarantee that they would at least go kind of easy on him. Relatively speaking, since he was sure that ‘going easy’ was a thing that was possible when it came to torture. 

“I’ll think about it,” the villain responded smugly. “Now… where is Crocodile?”

Virgil shook his head. “I told you,” he breathed, maintaining eye contact with the other man. “I don’t fucking know.”

“And I am afraid I still don’t believe you,” Roman said smugly. “But just to humour you… Deceit?” 

He turned to Dorian again, but not before giving Virgil another smugly victorious grin. Virgil loathed that expression. 

Once more, Dorian’s eyes darted from Roman to Virgil, who returned the stare intensely, hoping to convey a message. He had to tell the truth here. If he really wanted to help Remus, he needed to tell the truth here. They couldn’t afford to make this more dangerous than it already was. 

“He’s lying,” Deceit finally responded, tearing his eyes away from the hero before him, so he could look back at Caesar. 

“As I predicted,” the man smiled sweetly, turning to Ray. “I say you try to… refresh his memory a little bit. After all, they tell you to cool off your burns with cold water anyways, right? Might wanna take care of him.”

“It would be my pleasure,” Dragon replied, not hesitating a single moment before she harshly pushed Virgil’s head under water again. The water was… surprisingly cold again, after having been heated up by the villain not too long prior. It would have been nice as a form of relief to his irritated and scorched skin, but it started to sting after just a second. Not to mention the torture factor. That sucked, too. 

After twice more of this… torture, Roman finally held up his hand. “I think that’s quite enough, Ray,” he said smoothly. “We want to save something for later. I think he needs a moment with his thoughts.”

Ray finally let go of Virgil’s hair again. “Of course,” she nodded as she walked around him, taking the small basin of water as she passed him. She joined Roman, Dorian and the woman/robot-lady at the door and walked out without giving Virgil even a second glance. Dorian looked back at him for a second, giving him a look that the hero wasn’t quite sure how to interpret. 

Roman lingered in front of the door for a second, turning to Virgil. “It truly is an honour to meet you, Alibi,” he spoke smugly. “I have waited a long time for this moment to arrive. So please, _do_ try to get out, would you? It would be a shame for all this preparation to go to waste.”

He then closed the door. As soon as the door closed behind him, the main lights in the room turned off, leaving Virgil alone in this badly lit room. Only two small lights on the walls to his left and his right remained lit, but those two lamps alone weren’t enough to light up the room alone. Sure, he could look down and see his legs, and he could see the outline of the door to whatever was outside, but he didn’t see much. Not that there was anything to see, anyways. The room was pretty much empty other than his chair and himself. 

Virgil didn’t know how long he sat there, trying to catch his breath and coughing over and over. He wonder how much water he must have swallowed, how horrible he had to look after all that. His entire body ached. His lungs hurt from the lack of oxygen, his shoulders, wrists and ankles hurt from him struggling against his bonds in a futile attempt to set himself free. His head was spinning and at the same time, he felt like it was about to burst. But for now, he could take it. He could persevere, get through this at least for now. But he knew he couldn’t do that forever. He would crumble at some point, but he would try to postpone that moment for as long as he could, but that couldn’t last forever. All that mattered to him now, was trying to find a way to make sure Remus would be safe. Easy enough, right?


	22. Fight to Survive

After a small eternity, the door opened again and Virgil raised his head, preparing for whatever would be coming for him now, but it was only Dorian who walked in, a small glass of water in his hand. 

“Hey,” he said softly as he closed the door behind him. “I… brought you water.” The lights in the room stayed dim, allowing Virgil only a vague view of the other man, growing just slightly clearer when he walked closer.

The hero scoffed softly, looking down at his knees. “I think I’ve had enough of that for now,” he muttered with a light shake of his head. “But thanks.”

“Still. I don’t know how generous he’ll be in the future,” the other retorted, and Virgil knew he was right. To be fair, he had exactly no expectations, not with how much Roman seemed to hate his guts — according to Remus. So even this was generous.

“I know,” he sighed. “I don’t suppose you got the keys?” He moved his hands slightly, making the chains jingle. His shoulders were starting to ache from his uncomfortable position, as well as his wrists. 

Dorian shook his head as he stepped closer. “I’m afraid not.”

“Figures. It was worth a shot.” 

The two of them remained silent for a few seconds. Virgil looked up at Dorian, trying to figure out what to do. Remus liked him. Whether he trusted him… Virgil thought he did. Maybe not with his life, but there was at least a certain factor of trust. There had to be; they were still doing business, after all. So now, the real question was… could  _ Virgil _ trust him as well? 

“You… want some?” Dorian asked, raising up the glass in his hand. “I can’t exactly uncuff you, so…”

“Sure.” It wasn’t ideal, but… well… he couldn’t do anything. As much as he hated this situation, he couldn’t deny that it was pretty much impossible to do anything at all. God, this sucked almost more than the torture itself. 

Dorian nodded, very clearly not sure how to handle this situation. He was used to interrogations and being caught up in high-risk situations. He was  _ not  _ used to helping someone drink water. That was… not his method of operation. But this was Caesar’s will, so… there wasn’t much he could do.

Eventually, he carefully set the glass at Virgil’s lips and tilted it back slightly, so the other could drink some of the water, but careful so he wouldn’t ingest too much. 

“Thanks,” Virgil said softly, offering the other a half smile. He bit his lip slightly, still trying to work out whether or not he could trust this man enough to ask him a favour. But before he could say anything, Dorian already spoke up. 

“You didn’t want me to lie,” he concluded, looking at Virgil with some kind of intrigue glinting in his eyes. “Why not?”

“Too big a risk,” the hero shrugged, looking at a point on the wall opposite him. “I doubt that Roman would have believed you anyways. It would get you in trouble, get me into… even more trouble, and it wouldn’t help Remus either. I can endure this for now, I just need to make sure Remus stays out of his hands.”

“You really want to help him, huh?” 

Virgil nodded without giving it a single thought. “Of course,” he said, as if it was obvious — and to him, it was. He couldn’t imagine that there was anyone who wouldn’t want to do anything to save a friend. “He doesn’t deserve to die.” 

“So you’d rather have yourself tortured than have him die?” Dorian questioned, crossing his arms. It seemed like this was a whole new concept to him. Or perhaps, he was just trying to figure out Virgil’s motives. 

“If I had to choose to suffer to keep someone safe, or to not suffer but sentence them to death… yeah, that’s an easy choice.” 

And maybe… there was a little bit of self-preservation in there, too. If he didn’t tell Roman where Remus was, he’d get tortured, but he would be careful not to cross a line, since he needed the information. If he  _ did  _ tell Roman where Remus was, that reason would be gone, and he would most definitely cross that line. He would have no reason to hold back anymore. But that was only a small part of his reasoning. Keeping Remus safe was definitely on his mind so much more. 

Alibi finally looked up at Dorian, who returned this look with his eyes narrowed in intrigue. This man before him was… something else. Stubborn as all hell, but not necessarily in a bad way. Devoted to keeping people safe, too. It was… interesting. He seemed genuine enough, though. 

“Look,” Virgil continued to say. “I don’t know if I can trust you, but Remus… he seems to. Kind of, at least. So I’m going to trust his judgement for once. You need to find him. Tell him where I am. And tell him not to worry or try to rush into anything. He needs to try and follow the plan. And he needs to go somewhere I don’t know. I don’t want to accidentally give away his location when they… do their thing.”

“Are you sure? I can just try to get you out of here, I think I’d-”

Virgil shook his head. “That will just make things worse. They’ll be coming for me, for Remus, perhaps for you. If I stay here, that means they’ll be less likely to actively look for him since they’ll want to get his location from me. That gives him time to… do something else. And they won’t kill me as long as they’re looking for him, since they’ll want information. So… yeah. I’m sure.”

Dorian looked at him for one second more, overthinking his words. If he was being honest… he couldn’t care less what happened to the man in front of him. What mattered to him, was what might happen to Remus. What might happen to himself. And as much as he hated to admit it, Virgil might be right. Sure, getting him out of here would ensure that Caesar wouldn’t figure out where Remus was hiding. Not now, at least. But the organisation would start up their witch hunt again. They’d use every single tool in their possession and it would be only a matter of time before they would find their target. And he himself would be a likely target as well. 

If they kept Virgil here, on the other hand, that would give Remus time to get away and make a plan to finally get rid of Caesar. While he hadn’t been a big fan of this plan to begin with, the longer he stayed here, the less ridiculous it started to sound. At this point, that was the only way to end this. 

“Fine,” he finally decided. “I’ll tell him. As long as you don’t tell on me.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Virgil muttered. “Thanks.”

Dorian simply gave a nod in response. “Of course. I have to go now, but I’ll try to come back… at some point.”

“Sure,” the hero nodded. Dorian turned to leave. As he opened the door, a small strip of light filled the room, making it look so much lighter than before. However, this light was quickly taken away as the door closed again, leaving Virgil by himself with only the two small lamps on the wall for company. 

And now to survive by himself until the next visitors came. 


	23. Truth's Unwinding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: mention of torture, anger, smoking

**_Unknown:_ ** _Snake_

 **_You:_ ** _Octopus_

 **_You:_ ** _What’s up?_

 **_Unknown:_ ** _We need to talk_

 **_Unknown:_ ** _Asap_

 **_You:_ ** _About what?_

 **_Unknown:_ ** _It’s about Alibi though_

 **_You:_ ** _What do you know about him?_

 **_Unknown:_ ** _I can’t tell you over text_

 **_Unknown:_ ** _You got somewhere we can meet_

 **_You:_ ** _… fine_

**_You shared a location_ **

**_You:_ ** _Semi-basement_

 **_You:_ ** _When can you come?_

 **_Unknown:_ ** _Any time_

 **_You:_ ** _Come in an hour. 3-1-1/1/1_

 **_Unknown:_ ** _Will do_

“You look like you have news,” Patton commented, looking up from his laptop. He was sat in the far corner of the couch, nearest to the wall, where he could easily charge his laptop while doing some homework. “Can I hear it?”

Remus cast a glance at the student, distracted for only a second by the question of how this kid knew exactly how he had this news. “Yeah,” he responded, snapping himself back into reality. “Dorian has news on Virgil. He’s coming by in an hour.”

Virgil did not stop by last night, and he hadn’t responded to any texts or answered his phone. Quite obviously, this had worried the two. While they did not know about Caesar’s plan to capture the hero, it wasn’t unlikely that something bad had happened. Virgil didn’t just go off the radar like that. Not without good reason. And while the fact that _Dorian Vera_ of all people had news on him didn’t mean anything good, at least it was news and that was more than they had before. 

“Oh.” Patton didn’t know how to respond to this. One the one hand, he was hopeful. There was some news at the very least! But he didn’t know if it was good. Remus’ expression did not betray anything, and he did not know if there was any implication in Dorian knowing something. He had heard the name a few times, and by now, he knew that Dorian was a part of the organisation. But that was all he knew about the guy. 

“Yeah,” Remus nodded. “We’ll see what he has to say.”

After that, the two of them did not speak. Patton worked on his assignment, and Remus scrolled through something on his phone, eventually leaving to his bedroom to smoke a cigarette without disturbing Patton too much — or maybe two, but he would deny that fact when confronted about it. 

Eventually, someone knocked on the door. Three knocks directly after each other, those were followed by two quick taps, although distinctly separated. A rest. One short. Rest. One short knock. Dee in Morse code. Just like arranged. 

Remus came out of the bed room, a strong smell of tobacco still lingering around him. He opened the door just enough for Dorian to enter, cast a look outside, and closed the door. 

“So, what’s the news?” he asked, leaning against the door to look at his friend. 

“You’re eager,” Dorian stated, raising an eyebrow curiously. He knew Remus well enough to notice, even from this one sentence, that something was up. He was worried, but trying to hide that fact. Too bad he was dealing with Dorian here. He couldn’t only point out when someone was lying. He could see much more than just that. 

“Just curious to know what happened to my ally.” Remus sat down on the couch again, scooting a little closer to Patton so there was room for Dorian to sit as well. 

“Fine.” Dorian cast a slight look at Patton, who closed his laptop to listen intently. “But you’re not gonna like it.”

Remus shook his head slightly, not having the patience to deal with this. He just wanted to know what happened to Virgil and why he wasn’t responding to any of his texts. He didn’t have time to wait around like this. “Just break it to me, Dee.”

“Caesar found him,” Deceit said with slight reluctance. “He’s trying to get your location out of him.”

“I’m sorry, he’s _what_?” Remus asked. His voice was calm, but it was very clear that that was only pretense. His eyes grew cold in a way that Dorian recognized as him very consciously hiding the fact that he was furious. He never realised that Remus cared for Alibi so much. “Which location?”

“Remus, I-”

“Where the _fuck_ is he, Dorian?” 

“I had to tell you not to rush into anything,” Dorian said, holding his hands up to keep a bit of distance between him and his friend, who leaned in closer in an attempt at intimidation. “You need to get out of here and move to a place he doesn’t know about, and try to follow the plan. Whatever that means.”

Remus took a few breaths. He was worried about Virgil, obviously. He knew all too well how insane Roman could get, and how much he hated Alibi. Sure, he would go easy on the hero for now, as long as there was a chance that he could get them information. But that wouldn’t last. He had to get Virgil out of there as quickly as he could. But of course… he wouldn’t let Dorian — or Patton for what that’s worth — know that. 

“I need to know,” he insisted. “I won’t engage yet, but I can’t do this without him. I need to get him out of there sooner or later, but I’ll make sure I’m prepared.”

“He’s at Brand,” Dorian told Remus finally, following the latter with his eyes as he got up to grab a cigarette and a lighter from a drawer in the coffee table, putting the cigarette in his mouth and bringing the lighter up to light it. 

“Remus,” Patton said softly — the first thing he’d said in a while. “You might wanna… not? You’ve had, what? Two already?”

“Let me have this one, Pat,” he returned, leaning against the back wall. “I need a bit of stress relief here.”

“That’s what you said about the first two,” the student muttered, earning a minute smile from Dorian. 

“Yeah,” Remus said as he took a drag of his cigarette, blowing out some smoke. “They didn’t help. So… you said Brand?” He turned to Dorian, who gave a simple nod as a response. “I can do that… I just need to know everyone’s whereabouts. Where does Red Bandit usually hang out these days?”

“Central,” Dorian quickly responded, his eyes following Remus as he quickly walked towards the desk behind him to pick up a stray piece of paper and a pen.

“Good,” he muttered as he made a quick note, his cigarette resting between his lips. Red Bandit was probably one of the easiest members of the organisation, but he was still a pain and Remus would rather not have to deal with him. Especially since he would have to deal with more difficult opponents. “Dragon?”

“Between Central and Brand,” came the answer. “She spends a lot of time at Brand nowadays.”

Remus nodded as he made a note of this as well. “Figures. Parasite?”

“Brand.”

“Brand,” Crocodile said at the same time, already knowing the answer. She was… a good tool in interrogations, after all. Remus just hoped she wouldn’t be their first resort. Or even their second. “Yeah, thought as much. Barrier?”

“Thornwall.”

Remus looked up at Dorian, his eyes shooting up in surprise. He took use of the moment to take a drag of his cigarette. “ _Thornwall_?” That was one answer he had not expected. Thornwall was the location of one of their labs. It was mostly a legitimate business, but there were a lot of… less legitimate experiments going on behind that façade. Mostly on humans. That’s how some of the organisation’s strongest members were created.

“Yep,” Dorian said with a single nod. “They've got a job there. Something about a new experiment, I think.”

While that did make sense, it still felt weird. Barrier was pretty much the one in charge when it came to the experiments, but their ability to cancel out the powers of others could be a huge advantage when detaining someone with powers. Especially someone as powerful as Virgil. 

“Then who's standing guard with Virgil?” he asked curiously. They must have taken some kind of precaution. He just didn’t know what that would be.

‘New Eve.”

“Ah, Crocodile Hunter 2.0,” Remus nodded, making a note of this. “Of course. So she's not on guard outside then?”

It was clear that taking out Marsh — and stealing his gun on top of that — had been a right move. While, yes, it ended them up in this mess where Virgil was tortured for information, it had messed with the hierarchy in the organisation. Eve, being half robot, was usually used for security. She could access security cameras, and she was linked to the phones of the members of the organisation. If she saw anyone approaching, everyone who was within her range would get a text, along with the footage shot by her one robotic eye. Other than that, the robotic parts of her body protected her from most damage, and she was equipped with a small array of weapons to stop any intruder. Now that she was upgraded with the Crocodile Hunter feature, she became a much more dangerous opponent. So if she was standing guard with Virgil, instead of being on the lookout for intruders… that would make this operation much easier. He just needed to get in, find a way to draw Eve out and get to Virgil. That could be done. 

“Not much,” Dorian confirmed. “They won't send her out unless they've got reason. Security outside has been heightened, though.”

“That’s no big deal. I’ll handle that,” he said with a confident grin. “Dynamo?

“Between Central and Brand.”

“Morpheus?”

“All over the place,” Dorian said. “Wherever they need to be.”

Remus made the final notes before turning to his friend. “And I’ll assume you’re at Brand full time?”

‘As long as Caesar needs me there, yeah,” he nodded. “I doubt there will be another job anytime soon, though. Nothing as important as this one, at least.”

“Good.” If Dorian would be at Brand, maybe the two of them could work together in a way. As long as Dorian didn’t endanger his position at the organisation, because that would make an already complicated situation even more complicated, and that’s not what they needed right now. “Do you have anything on Dragon’s schedule? When she’s at Brand or Central?”

Dorian simply shook his head at this. “Whenever Caesar needs her at Brand, she’s at Brand. It’s irregular, but it’s safe to assume she will be at Brand.”

“Good, so at worst we’ll be dealing with Dragon, Dynamo, Eve and Morpheus,” Remus summed up, looking back at his notes. “And Caesar, obviously. Think you can be there to help me out?”

“Think so.”

“Awesome.” 

Dorian eyed his friend cautiously, knowing the chances of him doing something stupid were incredibly high. Remus didn’t seem to grasp the concept of danger; with his powers and his incredible skills in fighting, he finished most of his jobs in the blink of an eye. But this was different. It wasn’t like any of his regular missions. If he did this, he wouldn’t just walk into a lion’s den; he’d be walking into a lion’s den where the lions were armed and armoured and ready for his arrival. Caesar knew he’d be coming, he had taken precautions. Remus would be fighting people like Dragon, people _he_ himself had trained. People like Dynamo, who had been trained by Caesar. People who knew him and how he worked. And then there was Eve. If she entered the playing field, she could cancel out Remus’ powers. He’d be vulnerable — something that he was undoubtedly unfamiliar with, both physically and emotionally. Yeah, he was going to do something idiotic. 

“Be careful,” he decided to say. “If you want to save him… don’t do anything stupid.”

“You know me,” Remus shot back. “I can’t make any promises.” He blew out a puff of smoke and grinned at Dorian. “I knew you cared about me. You have something of a heart inside that empty husk of yours after all.”

Dorian rolled his eyes at the tease. "Just trying to help," he huffed.

“Which is very much appreciated, thank you,” Remus said with a wink. 

“And I’m regretting it.”

Remus laughed softly as he finished his cigarette and extinguished it against the palm of his hand. “I mean it, though,” he said, looking at his friend. “I appreciate the help.”

And he truly did mean it. Remus wasn’t the type of guy to openly admit he needed help. He’d done it once, trying to convince Virgil to help him go after Roman, and that had been bad enough. But if someone _offered_ it to him… who was he to refuse it, right? On top of that, it was a nice confirmation that maybe, Dorian really _was_ on his side.

There wasn’t a lot for them to discuss after that, so after a few more minutes, Dorian announced that he had to leave. He still needed to get some work done today. 

“Very well,” Remus said with a nod as he walked with his friend in the direction of the door. “I imagine he’s having you work overtime, huh?”

“As always,” Dorian confirmed, taking note of how Remus seemed to have calmed down by now. _Seemed_. Ever since he had been part of the organisation, Dorian had been an important part in interrogations, due to his ability to tell lies from the truth. So obviously, in a situation like this, he’d have even more work to do. Roman wasn’t going easy on Virgil, so Dorian wouldn’t be surprised if he would be needed to be present for yet another interrogation. And he needed to do some work outside of that as well, so he couldn’t afford to be gone for too long. He needed to be available all day, every day, as long as Virgil was with them. 

“I am not surprised,” Remus hummed. “Keep me updated if anything else happens, yeah?”

“Of course.” Crocodile opened the door and Dorian promptly stepped out. “Be careful.”

“As always.” Remus grinned at him, starting to close the door. “You too.”

He then closed the door, taking a few moments to just… think, unaware of the young student studying him. He’d almost forgotten Patton was there, as quiet as he had been after he heard the news about Virgil.

“Remus?” Patton looked at the other, who stood almost frozen in place, gripping the doorknob so tightly that Patton feared he might break it. There was a slight creaking noise already, which couldn’t mean anything good. “Are you okay?” 

It took a few moments before Remus came in action again, walking towards the desk, but not responding to Patton’s question. 

“That goddamn son of a bitch,” he muttered frustratedly as he tried to find where he had stored his cigarettes. “I fucking swear…”

When he finally found what he was looking for, he agitatedly fumbled to get one of the cigarettes out of the pack, clearly getting more frustrated as it didn’t work immediately. He did succeed eventually, grabbing a cigarette and lighting it.

“It’s gonna be okay,” Patton tried idly, knowing very well that was probably the dumbest thing to say right now. “I’m sure if we just-”

“It’s not,” Remus snapped, blowing out a bit of smoke, but making sure to blow it away from Patton. “It’s fucking not, and you know why? Because Virgil has been captured by my nutcase of a brother who’s trying to find _me._ He’s got mindreaders. Mind controllers. They’re going to find out what he did. And when they do, he’ll be royally screwed because _that_ means that Roman doesn’t have any use for him and he doesn’t have to keep him sane. So he’s gonna have him tortured until he drops dead. He’s got a list. And it’s not going to be pretty. At fucking _all_. You know why? Because I came up with most of the things on that goddamned list.”

Patton blinked a few times at Remus’ tirade. “You did?” he simply asked, slightly confused still. 

“Yes, _me_ ,” Crocodile huffed as he took another drag of his cigarette. “Of course it’s me. Roman likes to parade as the worst out there, the most gruesome, the most terrifying villain. But he’s not. He doesn’t do shit. He kills people with his death-touch? It’s the most goddamn merciful death out there. He talks to people, maintains the link between the organisation and others. He interrogates people and has others do the torturing, he has others do the killing, experimenting and kidnapping while he sits in his lovely office all day long. He isn’t _shit_ but he sure likes to act like he is. You know where he’d be if it wasn’t for me working his ass up the chain? Goddamn nowhere. Certainly not where he is now. He thinks he’s the motherfucking king of this town, he thinks he's the biggest threat out there but he’s nowhere as bad as _me_. Compare my track record to his and you’ll see who’s the real threat. He’d be nowhere without people like me to execute his stupid orders and to do the dirty work for him. He’s a prick, sure, but he’s hardly the genius behind it all. Why do you think he’s kept me around for this long? He would have killed me long ago if I wasn’t so useful in his stupid little plans.”

After this rant, Patton remained quiet for a few more seconds. Of course, he knew that the Crocodile was a bad person, who had killed people in the most gruesome way possible, but hearing that come out of his mouth, hearing him say that he had made a list of ways to torture Virgil — even though they didn’t know each other back then — it was… weird. 

“How long is the list?” he asked hesitantly, not sure he even wanted to hear that. 

Remus paused for a moment, with his cigarette halfway on its way back to his mouth. “Let’s just say that, it’s unlikely you’d be able to go through the entire list before he loses it.”

“He being…”

“Virgil.” 

Right. Patton had guessed as much. He was fairly sure that he would be able to live his life happily without ever hearing whatever was on that list, since he’d rather not think about what Virgil might be subjected to sooner or later, but there was a morbid curiosity at the back of his mind that wanted to know what kinds of things Remus would have thought of. It wasn’t a secret that the Crocodile was a merciless killer and a little more of a look into his mind would be interesting, but the thought of those techniques possibly being used on someone he considered a friend made him sick. 

“Do I want to know what’s on there?” he tried carefully as he eyes the other. Remus was still worked up, it was clear to see in the way his shoulders were squared up and the ice cold expression in his eyes. It was visible in the near-robotic movements with which he brought his cigarette to his mouth and his glare at a spot on the wall as he took a drag. Patton was more than curious to see what was going on in Remus’ head. He was clearly furious, but the student couldn’t help but feel like there was more going on. Worry, most definitely, but probably even more that Patton couldn’t quite decipher. Honestly- Remus was a weird person. He pretended like he was the baddest bitch in town and nothing bothered him, but Patton was almost certain that there was more going on in that head of his than he wanted to let on. 

“I don’t know,” Remus responded, still a cold edge to his voice as he raised an eyebrow. “Do you?” 

“I don’t know,” Patton said with a shake of his head. He tore his eyes away from Remus finally, looking down at his hands. Part of him wanted to know more than anything, but another part of him… couldn’t take it. He didn’t want to hear it but he _did_. 

There was a moment of silence in which Patton just stared at his hands while Remus continued to smoke. 

“Break his knees,” Remus spoke finally as he pushed the cigarette into his hand to extinguish it. Patton looked up in confusion but that didn’t stop him. “Elbows, hands, every part of his body, really. Pull out his fingernails, toenails, cut off his ears, gouge out his eyes. Have Dragon use her powers against him, or Dynamo, different kinds of serums, you name it. More than enough to last a dozen lifetimes.”

He grabbed another cigarette and lit it immediately, not even giving Patton another glance as he did so. 

Said student cringed at the different things Remus had mentioned, every one of them seemingly worse than the next. God, he couldn’t imagine going through any of that. He couldn’t imagine that Remus would ever think of that. Even though he was well aware of Remus being the Crocodile… he found it hard to believe that the two of them were… the same person. It was weird to think about. 

“Right,” Patton said softly. He was starting to want to change the subject and _not_ think about what horrors Virgil might be put through at the moment. Right now, that was the only thing he could think about and he did _not_ like it. “So… what’s the plan?”

“I go to Brand Tower, get him fucking out of there as soon as possible and leave,” Remus simply said. “That’s all.”

He was quite blunt still, but Patton knew it was the stress of the current situation. It affected him more than he wanted to show, so he disguised it with anger and aggression. And smoking. Of course he was worried, that was obvious enough. Remus just didn’t know how to deal with that so he reverted to the one emotion he did know how to deal with. That emotion being anger, obviously. 

“That’s all?” 

“That’s all,” Remus confirmed. “All I care about.”

Patton nodded slightly, not convinced. They definitely needed a plan. A little more than just ‘attack’. He didn’t trust that just attacking would work sufficiently, but Remus was too much into his own head to be reasoned with. In all honesty, Patton was surprised he hadn’t already run out the door to head over to Brand Tower. So maybe there was a little hope for him. 

“Great plan,” he said softly. “Let’s… think that over tomorrow, yeah? I think we need to listen to Virgil and get out of here first. You got anywhere else to go?”

“More than enough.”

“Good,” Patton said softly, trying to make his way over to Remus carefully. “Then… let’s get out of here before anything happens. And we can discuss this tomorrow?”

Remus stared at the young man, barely even noticing when he gently took the cigarette out of his hands and pushed it into the villain’s hand to extinguish it, knowing that Remus would be using his powers to make his skin impenetrable once more. He really needed to stop smoking. 

“Fine,” Crocodile huffed as Patton walked away to throw the cigarette out. “Pack your things, then. Then we can leave.”


	24. So You Conjure up a Fiction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: torture, shocking, mind reading

At some point — Virgil assumed it was around nighttime somewhere, but he didn’t know where in the night — the two lights on the walls turned off, leaving him in complete darkness. And in general, he didn’t mind the dark, but mixed with the complete silence, the uncomfortable position he was in, the inability to move, it all just added up to something horribly uncomfortable. 

At some point, he did manage to fall asleep. It was a very uncomfortable and dreamless sleep, but sleep nonetheless. The only reason he knew he'd slept, was because he woke up when he heard the door being unlocked, his neck hurting like hell from the position he had been in. 

As it turned out, the people entering were just two random gang members, there to help him get something to drink — no food, though; expected but disappointing nonetheless — and get him to a small bathroom linked to the room by a door in the back. They didn’t have enough value to the plot of this story to earn a name. 

Virgil decided to be easy and just comply for now. He didn’t want to waste any energy trying to break out when he knew that was practically impossible. At least without a well thought out plan, it was. Security  was insane around here; there was no way he'd be able to fight his way out. Especially without powers.

When he was done with doing his thing — maybe stretching it a little bit just to have a sense of freedom, despite his hands still being cuffed together, as well as his feet — Virgil just sat down on the chair again, not struggling as they tied him back up. It went against all his instincts to do this so easily, but what else was he supposed to do? He still couldn’t use his powers and he couldn’t exactly fight two people with his hands and feet cuffed together. So, as much as he hated it, he just… had to wait it out. And when he was all tied up again, the two left Virgil alone once more.

Once more, Virgil didn’t know how much time had passed when the door opened once more. In walked four people; Caesar (obviously), Dynamo, the robot-human lady from before, and another woman, though she was completely unfamiliar to Virgil. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen her before not even on the streets or during any of his missions. 

“Good morning, Virgil,” Roman smiled at him. “Did you sleep well?”

“I slept amazingly, thank you,” the hero responded sarcastically, fighting the urge to roll his eyes. “I appreciated the room service, too. Great service, truly.”

“Only the best for the best,” Caesar smirked. “But, pleasantries aside, have you made up your mind yet? If you just tell me what I want to know, I might go a little easier on you right now.”

Virgil couldn’t help but wonder if they had the same definition of ‘easy’. If he had to be honest… he doubted it. Besides, he would never take Caesar’s word to be truthful in any situation. And especially not in this current situation. Not that it mattered; he wouldn’t tell him anyways. 

“I’m tempted, but I like to play a little hard to get,” he shot back, even though his mind was screaming at him to just take the easy road. He knew better than that, though. There was no easy road; only a hard road and an even harder road. “So just get on with it,  _ Roman _ .”

He didn’t know why he did that. Maybe it was to show Caesar that he knew his real name. To make clear that he wasn’t better than anyone else. Just because he had a fancy secret name and nobody knew his actual name. Maybe it was to show that he didn’t care about Caesar, that he didn’t give a shit. Or maybe it was him refusing to let himself be beat, even when he was in a hopeless situation. 

It was probably all three of them. 

A flash of surprise glinted in Roman’s eyes, but it quickly made way for a smile; a mask to hide his shock. “So, he told you my name, huh?” he asked, giving Virgil a smile that did not reach his eyes. “Of course.” He then turned around, sending a look to the woman on his left. “Do your thing.”

“Of course,” Dynamo said with a nod, giving Virgil a dangerous glare. She extended a hand and shot a bright blue tendril of energy, almost like a whip, at him. At her command, the tendril wrapped itself around his neck, holding on tightly. It was tight enough that it made breathing harder, but allowing just enough air to flow so he wouldn’t pass out. She walked around him until she ended up behind him, never breaking eye contact until the moment she disappeared from Virgil’s line of vision. The hero had an inkling of an idea about what was about to come and he was hoping with every cell in his body that he was wrong. Knowing these people, though… he probably wasn’t. Behind his back, his hands curled up into fists, preparing for the worst. His muscles involuntarily tensed up, but he refused to show anything in his facial expression. He just looked Caesar in the eyes and refused to break eye contact. He wasn’t going to show any fear or signs of weakness. 

Roman smirked and looked up, turning his attention to Dynamo. “Go for it,” he said softly. 

Virgil's resolve was quickly banned a second later, as a strong energy current flowed through the whip around his neck, causing what had to be the worst pain he’d experienced in his life. The shock travelled through his entire body, tangible even in his fingers and his toes. It was way worse than what he felt when they captured him in his house, except this time… he didn’t pass out. No matter how much he wanted to. If only he could force himself to pass out somehow, just so he wouldn’t have to deal with this. 

Virgil squeezed his eyes shut and gritted his teeth, as if he hoped that could block out the pain. He trashed around instinctively, struggling against his bonds in an attempt to pull away from the source of the pain. It was futile, of course. Not only was he chained tightly to the chair, Dynamo had a strong hold of him with her whip. He wasn't getting away. 

His hands banged against the back of his chair. He didn't know why, though. Maybe it was an attempt to free himself, and attempt to distract himself from the pain, or maybe it was completely involuntarily. He didn't know, it was as if his mind had stopped working, too overwhelmed by the excruciating pain caused by Dynamo’s energy.

His nails dug themselves into the palm of his hands and it stung, but it was nowhere near as bad as what he was going through, even if he was pretty sure he'd drawn blood in the process.

He wanted to scream, but it felt like his throat was on fire, like his vocal chords just… seemed to cut out. Breathing was extremely difficult, too. Maybe it was just his throat that refused to cooperate due to the stress. He was breathing, but he didn’t feel like he took any breaths. His throat was closed off by the whip around his neck. 

After what felt like an eternity, the energy flow finally stopped. The whip stayed in place, but at least the energy stopped flowing. That was a relief if anything. A small relief, but a relief nonetheless. 

Trying to stabilise his breathing once more, Virgil opened his eyes and made eye contact with Roman again as he took a few deep breaths. His chest hurt and only then did Virgil seem to realise how much he'd struggled just now. How difficult his breathing had been. His lungs ached, a pain not too different to what it had felt like after the water torture. Painful from a lack of oxygen, from short, ragged breaths as his body struggled to breathe.

His body still tingled with the aftermath of what had just happened, but the pain was gone and that was like a breath of fresh air. He knew that it was only temporary, but he felt like he should at least cherish this moment a little bit before their next go.

“If you want that information out of me, you’re going to have to do way worse than that,” the hero hissed softly. Despite him trying to act tough, this attempt was undermined by his shaky voice, breathless as he desperately tried to recover. 

Virgil realised very well how weird this would sound, coming from him. He was just a guy, bound to a chair, with a whip around his neck. He was trembling and clearly affected by what had happened; he took deep breaths in an attempt to make up for lost oxygen, he could barely hold his head up, and that was only after one round.

All in all; he was in no position to make any sort of comment — especially not since he knew how Caesar felt about him, and that he would have no problem with hurting Virgil in any way, regardless of what the hero would say or do. But that didn’t make his words less true. Virgil would rather die than endanger his friend. Remus had probably left the apartment by now, meaning he’d be safe even  _ if  _ Virgil cracked. But he didn’t want to risk anything. Even if it was just to spite Roman. 

“Oh trust me,” the man said confidently. “I’m going to.”

Virgil rolled his eyes and he was about to make a sharp comment, but Roman nodded again, causing yet another energy surge to flow through the whip, forcing a silent gasp from the other's mouth. By now, you know the drill. It hurt. More than anything in his life. It sucked.

When the power died away again, Virgil had to blink a few times to get himself together again. He felt nauseous and lightheaded, and his ears were ringing. He wasn’t sure if he could take another one of these without passing out, but at the same time, he didn’t want to give anything away about Remus, even if it meant putting an end to all of this. There’s no way he was going to do that. He couldn’t do that. 

A part of him wondered why he was even going through all of this. He wasn’t even sure that Remus would do this for him if the roles were reversed. That thought was immediately pushed aside by his more sensible side of his brain. Remus was many things — a huge jerk, for one — but he could take a lot, and Virgil was sure he would protect him if the roles had been reversed. Even if it was only for his own good — but Virgil doubted that at this point. Remus was hard to get close to, but once you got to him, he was fiercely loyal. That was the impression Virgil got, anyways. And with a bit of hope, they were close enough. There was no doubt in Virgil’s mind that Remus would do whatever he could to protect him. Hopefully, this assumption was right. 

(Not that it would change anything about Virgil’s will to help the other no matter what, but it was a nice thought to hold on to in times like these.)

“I’m going to take a wild guess here,” Roman started, locking eyes with Virgil. “I ask you to give me information, you spit something vulgar at me in an attempt to insult me and you just get yourself hurt more in the process, am I right?”

“You hit the nail right on the head with that one, Vlad.” Virgil rolled his eyes slightly. He just wished they would get it over with. He knew what was coming, so why even bother trying to stall, right? 

“That’s cute, you think that’s an insult.” Caesar gave the hero a small smile, for once not lined with malice, although Virgil was sure there was some mockery in there. “Let’s give it another go, Dy.”

Virgil got exactly one second to prepare for the by now familiar pain travelling through his entire body. The feeling itself wasn’t that new, but fuck, it still sucked like all hell. And it seemed to drag on and on, coming to the point that Virgil really felt like he would pass out if it didn’t stop soon. He heard some voices, but they were distant and he could not make out the words precisely. 

But eventually, the pain disappeared, and the whip immediately disappeared around his neck as well, a sense of relief washing over him. At least this was over for now. His head fell forwards, seemingly unable to support itself. For once, Virgil was glad he was tied up so tightly, because he would probably fall over. He was so dizzy and lightheaded, and everything hurt  _ so  _ much. If only he could just be left alone for a little while to recover from all of this. But of course, that was too much to ask for. 

As Dynamo walked away, the other woman walked up to him and crouched in front of him. She put her hand under his chin, in almost a gentle manner, and tilted his head up, almost just as softly. The two of them locked eyes and Virgil discovered that he seemed to be unable to tear his eyes away. He felt his mind wandering, but not of his own accord. It was as if someone was digging through his memories trying to figure out something. But what? 

It wasn’t long before the trail of memories started to lean towards Remus. A voice in his head started to wonder… where was Crocodile hiding?

Immediately, Virgil knew what they were trying to do. He had never referred to Remus by the title ‘Crocodile’ since he learned his real name. Only when he didn’t want to give away his identity. That voice couldn’t possibly be his own thoughts. So then… it had to be the woman in front of him. That was their big game plan. If they couldn’t get him to say the information… maybe they could get it out of his memories. He just hoped Dorian- shit, no. He couldn’t think of him, he couldn’t think of the conversation they had, just in case she would see it. He didn’t know what she was capable of. 

Despite his exhaustion, he tried to steer his thoughts and memories away from Remus with all the strength he still possessed. But no matter what he did, the woman would easily get back on the track they were on. Virgil tried to focus on anything else. On the air currents he felt, on the electricity and oxygen in the air, but she would lead him away every single time. Back towards that place he did not want to end up. 

But then, he made an unconscious decision. He could not tell them where Remus was at now — if he was even in the apartment still — but he  _ could  _ tell them where he used to be. After all, there was a cottage just outside of town that Remus had used as a hiding place a while back. And after meeting with Dorian, he had decided to stop using it for safety’s sake. He would not be coming back, but they didn’t know that. If only he could manipulate his thoughts… 

He focussed on the cottage, the address, location, the memories he had of the place. Anything to make it believable. 

“Got it,” the woman smirked after a little longer of going through those memories. “Obsidian Lane 1755.”

Virgil’s head fell forwards once more, with the support of her intense stare disappearing so suddenly. He felt… exhausted. Even more so than before. Like all energy had drained from his body. But, on the bright side… his plan had worked. She had found the address of the cottage. Not the semi-basement. That meant that, no matter what would happen, Remus would be safe for now. Unless he had gone back to the cottage after Dorian had sent him the message. But that would be incredibly dumb, and Virgil was sure that he was better than that. Remus was safe. He was sure of that. 


	25. Cities to Be Burned

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: mention of burning (a house)

Immediately after Virgil had given them the address, Roman left the room, Dynamo, Eve and Parasite following. They had the address — or… an address. It was probably the right one, but there was always a chance that Virgil had resisted Parasite’s powers. As far as he knew, there were two people capable of doing that, one of those being himself. But that was only two out of the dozens of people she’d used her powers on. Even with that knowledge, he did not want to be too eager. Remus was a smart man; there was a reason he had been the second man in the organisation. And it wasn’t just because he was Roman’s twin. His skills were an important factor, too. He was smart. Even if Virgil was telling the truth, there was a chance that they would run into problems. 

“Call Barrier and tell them to come in,” he ordered to Parasite as he walked in the direction of his office. “They need to take Eve’s shift. No excuses.”

Parasite nodded. “Of course.”

“And tell the Bandit, Dragon and Eve to come in as well,” Caesar continued without taking note of what the other had said. “Tell them to come up to my office as soon as possible.”

“Of course,” she responded again. “Anything else I can do?”

“Not now,” Roman said with a shake of his head. “I will let you know if there’s anything else. I’ll be in my office.”

With those words, Roman left Parasite behind, going to his office, as he had said he would. He could take care of a little bit of paperwork and documentation before the trio would arrive. Red Bandit and Dragon still had to come over here, so that would take a couple of minutes. More than enough to get things done. 

And indeed, after about ten minutes, he heard a knock on his door. Caesar called for them to come in and pushed the papers on his desk aside as he leaned back in his seat. As expected, Red Bandit, Dragon and Eve came into his office, stopping in front of Roman’s desk. 

“You asked for us?” Dragon asked, eyeing the man cautiously, unsure if him calling for them was a good thing, or if they were going to get yelled at. One never knew with Caesar.

Roman nodded. “I did,” he simply said. “We've got an address. Obsidian Lane 1755. A potential hideout for the Crocodile. It is possible that the Journalist is there too. I need you to go there and have a look. If you find them there, kill them. Report back to me once you’re done. Got it?”

The three murmured their confirmations and nodded, promising that they would get the job done. 

“Very well,” Roman hummed with a wave of his hand. “You are dismissed.”

The trio nodded once more and immediately left, taking the elevator down to the ground floor. Ray bounced on the balls of her feet as she waited. The elevator ride was completely silent. A little bit too silent for her tastes, but neither Eve nor Travis — the Red Bandit — was extremely talkative, so… not much for her to do there. She had worked with them before, and she was well aware of their methods of operation, and to be fair… she would have preferred anyone else. She understood why Caesar sent in Eve, as she had the Crocodile Hunter feature now and was essential to their operation. But Red Bandit was dispensable. She could have done it herself! Or… she wouldn’t have minded Dynamo being a part of this mission. The two of them worked well together. And not just in the field. But… she couldn’t get it all, unfortunately. She was happy enough to be a part of this mission. Potentially taking out Crocodile was  _ huge _ and it was an honour to be one of the three chosen to carry out the mission. That was incredible in itself! She’d just have to tell Anna about it when they’d get back. 

Soon enough, the group of three made it to the large lobby on the ground floor and walked outside, to one of their cars. Just a man dressed in red, a woman in a suit with wings and a half-robot getting to their car. Nothing strange to see. 

Ray sat down in the back of the car, the wings on her suit folding behind her back to allow her space to sit. Eve took the passenger’s seat while Travis sat down in the driver’s seat. 

“So, how long’s it gonna be?” Dragon asked as he sat down, leaning her back to the door and resting her legs on the seats next to her. 

“About twenty minutes,” Travis responded. His voice was muffled due to him still wearing his mask — he rarely took it off. “Thirty max.” 

Ray nodded, making herself comfortable in the backseat as Travis started driving. The ride to the house was silent, other than the music on the radio that none of them bothered to turn off. Occasionally, Ray would hum along to a song that she recognized, but that’s about it. It was awfully quiet and Ray hated it. Luckily it only took about twenty minutes, so it wasn’t too bad. She wouldn’t have been able to last any longer than thirty minutes in a car with them. 

Eventually, though, they stopped in front of a cottage. There were a few houses around, but there didn’t seem to be many people around. This was a good thing, since they could end up making quite the scene. The fewer witnesses, the better. 

“Eve?” Travis asked as they approached the front door to the house. 

“So far no heat signatures,” she responded, following Travis closely. It had been silently agreed that Travis, as the one with the most experience out of the two human members of the group, would take the lead. So Eve would follow him, just like she had been programmed to do. She might be the most advanced of the three, but she wasn’t programmed to lead. She was made to follow orders. 

“Might be hiding,” Travis muttered under his breath as he  walked up to the door, breaking it in with ease. He turned to the two others and nodded in the direction of the house, silently telling them to go in first. Both Ray and Eve complied and silently walked inside, looking around for any sign of life in the house. 

Everything was silent. There were no glasses on the table, no books or clothes or shoes. Nothing that could possibly be a sign of someone living in this place. But they all knew Crocodile was a smart man and he knew what he was doing. If he was staying here, he would be sure to have alternatives. He’d probably have a secret room somewhere where he would be staying. They had to keep an eye on everything.

“I’m not detecting anything,” Eve said simply, scanning the room. There was nothing that could hint at a hidden room or passage. No air current, no hollow walls, nothing. That sucked. But it wasn’t hopeless yet. 

“Dragon, search the place for anything that proves he was here,” Travis ordered, looking outside through the windows. “See if there’s anything that can tell us where he is. Eve, you’re on guard.”

The two women hummed in agreement as they carried out their respective tasks. Travis helped Ray out with her job. They rummaged through cabinets and drawers, checked out every drawer and shelf. The beds, couches and chairs. Nothing was left untouched. But, despite their best efforts, the two couldn’t find anything. They found a notebook with a few pages torn out, empty bottles of wine that hadn’t been cleaned up, a few torn and stained clothes that were almost certainly Remus’ but he hadn’t bothered to take with him. But nothing that could lead them in his direction. Nothing that could tell him where he had gone. The place was a mess and they had nothing. The three almost didn’t want to report back to Caesar out of fear for his reaction. It wasn’t their fault, it was Alibi’s fault for giving out the wrong information. It was Parasite’s for retrieving the wrong information. They hadn’t been able to help it; they just had to do with what they were given.

So, after about an hour, the trio left the house. Dragon made sure to burn the place properly before they left — to send out a message to Crocodile, if he even cared — before getting in the car. Travis got behind the wheel once more and drove the car back to Brand Tower, once more in near complete silence. 

Once they got back to Brand, the three got out of the car and silently walked in the direction of the elevator, all three of them knowing that their next stop would be Caesar’s office. He’d asked for them to report back to him once they got back from their mission, and while none of them were excited about the prospect of telling him, they had no choice. If anything, the fact that they wouldn't be the ones to face repercussions was a small comfort.

They stopped in front of the door to Caesar’s office and Travis knocked on the door, waiting for them to be let in. Once his voice told them to come in, the Red Bandit opened the door and walked in, followed by Eve and lastly Ray, who closed the door behind her.

“Ah, you’re back,” Roman smirked, leaning forwards, folding his hands on his desk. “So… how did it go?”

“The Crocodile wasn’t there,” Eve responded without a hesitation, “he has likely been there, but he wasn’t present when we were there.”

“The address was likely a fake,” Travis added. “Alibi must have been able to resist Parasite’s power.”

Caesar hummed softly. That was interesting. There weren’t many people who could do that, so the fact that he had been able to resist her was, while unfortunate, interesting. That could be something to test out after they got what they wanted. For now, they just needed the information on Remus’ whereabouts. But once they had gotten that… there were some options. 

“What about the house?” he asked, not paying much attention to the others as he leafed through some papers, trying to find the notes he’d made previously on their progress with Alibi as well as the ideas he’d wanted to test out on the hero once they had gotten what they needed. 

(Yes, he had a list of the experiments he wanted to try out on Alibi, so what? He needed somewhere to write down his thoughts before he forgot them.)

“Burned it to the ground,” Ray answered immediately, managing a smile as Roman hummed approvingly. She knew that was exactly what he would have told him to do if he had been there, so seeing that he approved of her decision was comforting in a strange way that it definitely shouldn’t be. A voice in her head told her that this was messed up, it never shut up about what she did and why it was wrong, but at the same time… it was all she knew. The only thing she ever remembered was doing this to please the organisation. To please Caesar and even Crocodile. 

“Very good,” Roman mused as he made a few notes. “I suppose that’ll be all for now. You are dismissed.” As the three turned around to leave, he thought of something else and looked up again. “Eve?”

The half-robot stopped in her tracks and turned around. “Yes, sir?”

“Ask Morpheus to pay our little friend a visit, yeah? Maybe they will refresh his memory.”

Eve nodded. “Of course, sir,” she said. “Is that all?”

“That is all,” Roman said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “You can go. Oh, and tell Morpheus to come to my office once they’re done.”

“Of course, sir,” Eve repeated. She nodded at Roman and turned around, closing the door behind her as she left.


	26. Fucking With My Head

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Mind control, attempt at blackmailing

Virgil really had no idea how much time had passed since he came here. Sometimes, people would come in giving him something to drink — and on one occasion even a tiny bit of food; Caesar was probably feeling generous that day. Sometimes the lights would turn off completely, leaving him in complete darkness. But if there was any particular rhythm to it, Virgil could not tell. He had lost all sense of time and he wouldn’t be surprised if he would eventually find out this had just been one day. 

The door opened once more and Virgil looked up lazily, trying to see who would be coming in this time. He didn’t think it would be anyone bringing him water, since that service had already come today. What he thought would be ‘today’. To his surprise, it was only one person, but he couldn’t quite see who it was immediately. It definitely wasn’t Caesar, as he was taller and his step sounded more even and steady than this one. Had he really gotten to the point where he could recognize the way Caesar’s footsteps sounded?

He blinked a few times to get used to the bright light coming in from outside, although it disappeared quickly as the door closed. However, he could still recognize the person who just walked in. Hell, he could recognize them even in pitch black darkness. 

“Remy?” he asked incredulously, his heart sinking. Was Remy- they were part of the organisation? Really? What the fuck were they even doing in here? 

“Surprise,” they said with a slight smile. Even in this room, with just a few lights that barely were enough to see, they kept on their sunglasses. “I wish I didn’t have to do this, but alas.”

“Bullshit,” Virgil spat. He didn’t believe it for a second. “It was you, wasn’t it? Who sold me out?” It just had to be. No one else in the organisation knew anything about him. He wondered how they knew, though. He’d never even discussed the topic with them. Had he messed up somehow? Let something slip? What if they found the suit and glasses containing his suit? 

“I had no choice,” they shrugged. “Marksman was my friend.”

“And I wasn’t?”

“Of course you were,” Remy answered indignant, as if the fact that he would even think of asking such a question was offensive to them. “But you killed my friend, Virge. I couldn’t let you get away with that.”

“So you sent the SWAT team after me to have me tortured to insanity?” he hissed, struggling to sit up straighter as he glared at them. They were lucky he was restrained because he wasn’t sure what he would have done otherwise. “Some fucking friend you are. How did you even know?”

“Let’s just say that I had my suspicions for a while. It was never confirmed, but… I was sure enough to take the chance.”

So they didn’t even know? They had a few suspicions, and yet they were fine with letting Caesar capture and torture him, knowing that there was a chance that he wasn’t even the guy they were after? God, what a lousy friend they were. Good riddance. 

“I really didn’t want to do this, Virgil,” Remy tried once more. For a second, they even looked sincere as they did. But Virgil didn’t believe them. If they didn’t want to do this, they wouldn’t be in this situation. As far as he knew, he wasn’t on anyone’s radar. If he was, he’d had more trouble from the organisation. He would have seen more people watching him suspiciously. He wouldn’t even have been able to meet up with Remus so often because they’d be keeping an eye on him. No one suspected him. There was no fucking reason for Remy to rat him out. 

“Oh save me the bullshit.” He rolled his eyes with a shake of his head. “If you didn’t want to, you wouldn’t have. Easy as that.”

Remy shook their head, trying to find a way to explain their predicament to Virgil. It really wasn’t that simple. On the one hand, they honestly did not want to expose their friend, but on the other hand, there really wasn’t a choice. Virgil had killed Marsh. Not only a friend of theirs, but their best men in the field. This was a declaration of war in Caesar’s eyes — and in Remy’s, just as much. If Alibi had been anyone else, Remy wouldn’t have hesitated to expose them. They couldn’t make an exception for Virgil just because he was their friend. Friend or not… he was an enemy of the organisation and he’d just started a war. But they had no idea how to make this clear to him. It probably wouldn’t matter anyways. He wouldn’t understand. He didn’t understand a thing about how this organisation worked. So why even bother? 

“It’s complicated,” they settled, crossing their arms. “Look… the address Parasite found wasnothing, you know the deal. We need to know where Crocodile is. You still get a chance to tell me voluntarily. I don’t want to… do anything to you, Virgil, but you leave me no choice.”

Do anything? Now, that just sounded ominous. Was Remy going to torture him too if he didn’t comply? Might as well. They’d betrayed him anyways, so might as well go all out. 

“No way.” Virgil shook his head stubbornly, ignoring Remy’s comment. He would continue to protect Remus as long as he could — even if he had no idea where the other was hiding out. 

“I might be able to make a deal if you tell me now,” Remy tried, taking a few steps closer to Virgil, who just scoffed in response. 

“A deal?” he repeated with a soft laugh. “Right. What’s in it for me? Crocodile dies while I get tortured to death? Don’t try to talk me into anything. You and I both know Caesar won’t let me get out of here alive. Admit it. He hates me. I’m not getting out of here.”

Remy simply shrugged as they crouched in front of Virgil, looking up at him. “You really leave me no choice, then,” they said softly, taking off their sunglasses for what had to be the first time since they became friends. “Look at me.”

“I’d rather not,” Virgil answered, looking anywhere but at Remy. He didn’t trust this one bit. Why would they need him to look at them so badly, huh? That couldn’t mean anything good.

Remy glared up at the other slightly. “I said,” they stressed as they reached a hand up to gently put their fingers under Virgil’s chin, moving his face to the side so he had no choice but to do as they said. “ _Look at me_.”

For a second, their eyes locked and Remy smirked wickedly as they dropped their hand, letting it rest on Virgil’s knee. “Good,” they cooed, their sweet tone not at all corresponding with the maliciousness portrayed on their face. “Now, Virgil, tell me… where is Crocodile?”

Virgil shook his head, determined not to say anything. But then, it seemed like there was a slight red flash before his eyes, followed by a voice in his head, telling him to answer. Even if he couldn’t understand where it came from- Remy. It had to be them. It had to fucking be-

“I don’t know,” he answered truthfully, cursing himself for doing so. “I managed to get a message out to him, to tell him to go somewhere I don’t know so I couldn’t sell him out. I have no idea where he is now.”

“You what?” Remy’s voice was stone cold and laced with badly hidden rage. “How did you get that message out?”

Virgil shook his head, tearing his gaze away from his former friend. “I’d rather not say,” he choked out with a slight tremble in his voice, closing his eyes. If he was forced to answer truthfully to this as well, he would rat out Dorian, and he could not do that. He’d made a promise to not tell on them, and even without that promise, he did not want to endanger him too. 

God, this entire situation sucked. And it wasn’t even the fact that he was pretty much being forced to tell the truth. Sure, that wasn’t pleasant, but if it was just that, he could deal with it. It was the fact that it was _Remy_ doing it that made it so much worse. The fact that it was someone he thought to be his friend that wasn’t only working together with his biggest enemy by forcing these secrets out of him, but also that they were the one to reveal his identity, the one to end him up in this situation to begin with, that’s what made this entire situation so bad. Out of everyone in the city… why did it have to be Remy, for fuck’s sake?

Remy put their hand on Virgil’s cheek, pushing his face back so he was facing them once more. As a way to force his eyes to open, they swiftly backhanded him, then grabbing his chin tightly to keep his face in place. 

The sheer shock of the series of actions was enough to make Virgil open his eyes, even if it was just out of pure shock. Before he realised what he did, though, he had already locked eyes with Remy, whose grin only grew at this. 

“Virgil,” they said threateningly, maintaining strict eye contact as a red flash rippled through the room again. “Who sent the message?”

“Dorian,” he responded involuntarily. “I asked him to send the message.” 

Remy’s eyes narrowed. “I see,” they said slowly, trying to think where to go next. This had to be the complete truth; even if Virgil could deceive Parasite, there was no way he could resist their powers. So in that case… he was useless to them. If he couldn’t tell them Crocodile’s whereabouts, he had nothing else to give them. So they’d had to discuss this with Caesar. There was no way that he’d want to get rid of Alibi so quickly, after five years of him being a pain in all their asses, but they weren’t sure what to do with him for now. 

“Very well,” they finally decided as they got up. “Then that’s all I need for now.” They turned around to walk away, but stopped halfway through, as they realised something. “You weren’t a bad friend, Virgil. Until you decided to kill another friend of mine.” They looked back at Virgil, who just rolled his eyes. “I really do wish things had been different.” 

“I don’t,” Virgil just snapped back at them. He was too exhausted to deal with their shit. After everything that had happened, finding out that his only friend was a part of the organisation he had fought for years… that was a little bit too much for him to handle. Under other circumstances, he would have been able to take it no problem. Sure, it would suck and he’d be pretty upset for a little bit, but he could deal with it. But after everything that he’d been put through in the past few days, it just had been a little bit too much. Right now, he wanted Remy out of his sight as quickly as possible. He didn’t want to look at their face for any longer. He didn’t want to be reminded of… of this. “Go fuck yourself.”

“I’m glad you’re still you, Virge,” Remy said with a smile as they put their sunglasses back on. 

Virgil huffed, clenching his fistst behind his back. There were no words to describe how he felt about this entire situation. Furious, upset, betrayed, those were only a few words that together, could maybe paint a picture of the situation. But they couldn’t grasp it completely. 

“Too bad I can’t say the same for you.”

“Yeah,” the other snorted slightly, looking at Virgil with a vague smile before their expression turned stone cold again. “Good luck dealing with Caesar. He’s not gonna be happy.”

“Good thing I don’t live to please him,” Virgil called after them with a tremble in his voice as they walked out the door, leaving him by himself in the dark room once more.


	27. Damned After All

It had been a few days since Remus had heard about Virgil’s situation. He’d been nearly desperate to get himself over to Brand Tower, kick some ass, and get his friend out of there. He defended himself by saying that every day Virgil was with them, he would run the risk of being discovered, even though he knew that it would be impossible, since he and Patton had moved to yet another small house in the woods just twenty minutes away from the city. As if it was a sin to worry for Virgil’s health and safety. But as much as he wanted to rush into the building to get Virgil to safety, he knew it was a dumb move. Roman wasn’t stupid; he would have a plan. And a contingency plan. And a contingency plan for the contingency plan. If he wanted to do this, he had to go in prepared. And that meant planning. 

The day he had planned to go over to Brand, feeling confident enough that he’d prepared enough, Remus woke up to a text message. It was Dorian — or so they claimed — asking him for his location, because he needed a hiding spot for himself. Now, this could mean two things. Either, it really was Dorian, and he’d worked himself into some shit, which would suck for his big game plan, or it wasn’t and this was a trick to get his location, which would also suck. Although the last one wasn’t likely, since they had Virgil to get information and as far as Remus knew, Dorian was the only one with this specific number. But it wasn’t out of the picture either. He had no idea what Dorian was doing behind his back.

Either way, Remus did not want to risk being partially responsible for Dorian possibly dying. If he would prepare for the worst, he would be able to get away. So, he responded to the number, saying he’d meet them just outside of town. 

“I’m gonna go out for a bit,” Remus told Patton as he walked over to a bookshelf, grabbing two books and pulling slightly as he pushed the bookshelf to the side, revealing a secret passage downstairs. “I think you might wanna hide down here for the time being. You know… safety.”

Patton walked over, seeing a staircase going down to a basement. “Sure,” he said slowly, looking up at the other with a slight frown. “What are you going to do then?”

“Either picking up a friend, or walking into a trap,” the other responded, a small smile growing on his lips. “I’ll see what it is when I get there.”

“Are you-” 

“I’ll be going in prepared, don’t worry about me, Daily Planet,” Remus reassured Patton with a small nudge. “I’ll get you when I come back. If I’m not back in about an hour, you can start worrying.”

He gave Patton a small wink. Whether it was supposed to be a gesture of reassurance or just Remus being… himself, Patton wasn’t sure, but if it had to reassure him, it was doing a real bad job. Even with Remus’ powers, he knew that people were after him, and this was a big risk. But he was also the criminal mastermind in this situation, so he probably knew what he was doing… right? 

“Sure,” he said slowly. “Let me just…” He walked back to grab his laptop and a book he had started to read a few days ago, to take his mind off of this entire situation. “Good luck, then. Don’t die. Please.”

Remus nodded. “Thanks,” he answered, despite knowing he didn’t need it all that much. “I’ll let you know when I’m back.”

Patton gave him a thumbs up before walking down the stairs, turning around just to see the door close again, hiding the basement completely out of sight. 

When he was sure that the door was closed and completely hidden, Remus made his way to the car he had parked at a little distance from the house, getting in to drive to his meeting point. On the chair next to him, beneath a coat, he had hidden the Crocodile Hunter, ready to be fired if he saw any member of the organisation that wasn’t Dorian. No questions asked. In his boots, he carried a pocket pistol and dagger just to be sure. One could never be too careful.

The meeting point was a parking lot in front of the building of an abandoned restaurant. Gone out of business years ago and no one ever felt the need to take over the building. When he approached, Remus could see one person waiting underneath the lean-to of the dilapidated building, but if it was Dorian, he wasn’t quite sure. The fact that there was only one person was promising, though. As far as he could tell, there wasn’t anyone around either. 

Remus drove up to the restaurant and rolled his window down as he stopped, not far from the figure. They wore a bowler hat and hid their fact in the collar of their black coat rimmed with yellow accents, as if they were trying to hide their identity. Which would have been suspicious if Remus didn’t recognize that coat — if Dorian wanted to remain incognito, he really needed to do better than wearing the same coat he wore more regularly. 

“I heard you needed a ride?” One hand remained on the steering wheel while the other grabbed the coat on the chair next to him. It seemed like he was going to put the coat away to make space for his friend to sit down, but his hand lingered near where he knew the handle of the Crocodile Hunter to be. If this was a trick after all, he would be ready. 

“Perhaps,” the man in front of him responded simply, lowering their collar slightly, just enough to show the marks of old burns on the left side of his face. It really was Dorian after all, then. 

“Get your ass inside, then,” Remus huffed as he nodded to the seat next to him. “We don’t have all day.”

He threw the coat to the backseat, placing the Crocodile Hunter down way more gently to avoid damaging it or triggering the weapon. Dorian walked around the car, ever so vigilant, and sat down on the passenger’s seat. 

“So, what’s with the secrecy?” Remus asked as he took off again, nodding slightly to his friend, hidden behind his hat and coat. “Caesar finally got enough of you?”

Dorian shook his head. “Not sure,” he admitted. “I think your little buddy snitched on me somehow.”

“Virgil? How so?”

“What do you think?” Dorian asked, a hint of annoyance in his voice. “Caesar had his men try to kill me. Why would he do that  _ now _ ? I’m no priority. Unless he found the evidence that I helped you. And no one knows I did except your guy.”

Remus shrugged, unable to figure out why on Earth Virgil would tell on Dorian. He wouldn’t. Not voluntarily, Remus was sure of that. That didn’t sound like him. “Maybe,” he said. “You weren’t seen anywhere suspicious? They didn’t see you getting out of my place before? Didn’t track your number?”

“Not as far as I know.” Dorian shook his head. “I was careful enough. And if I’d been seen, they would’ve found you as well. It has to be him.”

“Maybe Ro-Ro just got tired of your shit, dude,” Remus tried again. “Wouldn’t be surprising to me.”

“Who knows?” It was clear that Dorian wasn’t convinced, but he didn’t care enough to argue. It was a lost case anyways. He doubted that Remus would accept the fact that Virgil might have told on him, and it wouldn’t change the past either. He’d have a word with Virgil himself if he ever got out of that place — because he was fairly certain that Remus would try to get him out of there. The other didn’t want to show it, but he cared about the hero. Maybe even more deeply than he wanted to let on. Even to himself. “There’s… something I should say.”

“Oh?”

Dorian took a breath before he spoke up. It was clear that he was not sure about what to say. He wasn’t sure if he should say the thing he intended to say, or crawl back now he still could. Keep his secret a secret. But he also realised that he should maybe… put a little more faith in Remus. He was an untrustworthy bastard, but he was his friend, and- maybe not as untrustworthy as Dorian might have thought initially. 

“My real name is Janus,” he finally said. “Dorian is my middle name, though. I’ve used it ever since I joined the organisation, for… safety. But it’s not my actual name.”

Remus nodded, shooting a brief glance as his friend before turning back to the road. “Why would you tell me?” he asked. “Why now?”

Janus shrugged. He didn’t quite know the answer himself. “I guess it’s… a sign of trust.” 

“A sign of trust,” the other repeated with a small smirk at Janus. “I suppose I could live with that. Thank you, Janus.” He tried out the new name. It would take some getting used to, but it was a nice name. He could get used to this eventually. “That’s some god, right?”

“It is,” the other repeated. “Roman mythology.”

Remus nodded. Yeah, he thought as much. Sounded Roman, anyways. “Well then,” he said, “Welcome to the club.”

_ “The club? _ ” Janus raised an eyebrow.

“The club of idiots who were named after Roman mythology,” Remus announced smugly. “So far it’s just us, Ro-Ro, and Virge.”

Janus nodded, giving his friend a miniscule smile. “I see,” he spoke slowly. “Well… thank you. It is an honour. I suppose.”

The rest of the car ride was silent. Remus looked in his rearview mirror regularly, ensuring that they weren’t being followed. Eventually, they stopped in a small parking spot, hidden in the trees. 

“This is our destination,” Remus announced as he turned off the engine. “Grab the gun from the backseat for me, thank you.”

He got out of the car without waiting for a response. As Janus grabbed the weapon, Remus looked around, making absolutely certain that no one had followed them. Sure, maybe he was being a little paranoid, but one could never be too paranoid. He wasn’t the only criminal mastermind in this town. 

Once he felt safe enough to proceed, he turned to Janus, who had joined him with the Crocodile Hunter in his hands. “Let’s go,” Crocodile spoke up, nodding his head to the right. “That way.”

The two of them walked for just a few minutes more until they reached the house. Remus opened the door to let Janus in and immediately walked over to the bookshelf, pushing it aside. 

“We’re back,” he called down before turning around to Janus, who gave him a questioning look. “We have to hide our dearest Journalist somewhere, didn’t we?”

“The Journalist’s here?”

Remus let out a soft laugh at this question, as if it was the most ridiculous question in the world. “Duh, where else is he supposed to stay?”

Janus didn’t respond to this. He knew that Remus had saved Patton, and if he really wanted to keep the kid safe, it made sense to keep him around. He’d probably get himself killed immediately if left alone. Remus saw this silence and took it as a win, grinning victoriously as he grabbed a cigarette and a lighter. 

“I thought we talked about that,” a voice suddenly spoke up, causing Remus to turn around to face the source of the voice, unlit cigarette between his lips. Patton had appeared in the hidden doorway giving Remus a stern look. It was a strange sight, given the fact that Patton was almost half Remus’ age.

“Correction,” Crocodil told the student, lighting the cigarette finally. “ _ You  _ talked about it. I listened.”

“You still need to stop,” Patton chided slightly, pushing the bookshelf to the side, so it concealed the passage to the downstairs area once more. 

“I’ll consider it,” Remus said, taking a drag. “After this shit is over.”

Janus looked between the two, a puzzled look on his face. He had known Remus for a long time, and Remus had smoked for almost that entire period of time. Getting him to stop never really worked, even getting him to think about quitting seemed impossible. And this kid just comes in, and gets him to consider quitting in, what, a week? 

“How’d you do that?” he asked in confusion, turning to Patton. “I don’t think I ever managed that.”

Patton shrugged with a serene smile on his face. “Dunno,” he said. “You just need to bring it up a few times. Maybe have a special something?”

“Impressive,” Janus nodded slightly. Not something he was quick to admit, but this truly was an impressive feat. He didn’t quite know what the journalist had that he didn’t, but… he wouldn’t linger on that.

The student just responded with a cheerful grin — how someone like Remus managed to live with someone like him was a mystery to Janus, but the two of them seemed to keep up just fine. 

“Right, if we’re all done gossiping,” Remus interrupted sharply, blowing out some smoke. “I feel like we should discuss the plan one more time, shall we?”

Janus raised an eyebrow at this comment. “Plan?”

“Plan,” the other confirmed. “I’m getting Virgil the fuck out of there.” 

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” he asked doubtfully. He knew Remus was a capable fighter. The best in their organisation, probably, matched only by Caesar, followed closely by Dynamo and maybe Dragon. But it would hardly be a fair fight. Remus would have to go inside Brand Tower. Dragon would be there, as well as Dynamo, Eve and Caesar. And as good a fighter as Remus was… he couldn’t fight all of them. There was no way. 

“I don’t give a damn,” Remus answered curtly. “I’m not leaving him there.”

Janus simply hummed. If it wasn’t already clear, Remus cared about Alibi for some reason. He himself still couldn’t understand why of all people, Remus would care about the  _ hero. _ He’d never seen the other care about someone this much, so this was odd, but… it was whatever. Not as if anyone could make the conscious decision to start caring about others.

“Very well,” he conceded. “What is your great plan?” He crossed his arms and eyed his friend expectantly. 

“Easy,” Remus responded with a challenging look at Janus. “I go to Brand, take out their security guys and go inside. I think I know where they’re keeping him, so I need to get up there and get him out. Whenever Caesar’s little henchmen come up, I’ll have to kick their asses and make sure Virgil stays unharmed.”

“And what if you fail?”

“I have my contacts. I’ll get a message out to Patton and he will contact them. He knows what to do, right?”

Patton nodded, giving him a thumbs up. “You can count on me,” he beamed. Remus smiled at the student and turned to Janus with a ‘I told you so’-look. However, it seemed that the latter wasn't quite convinced just yet. 

“And what if you won’t be able to get a message out to him?”

“Oh, I will,” Remus said, already moving in the direction of his bedroom as he finished his cigarette. “Trust me, you have no idea what I’m capable of.” Janus frowned and opened his mouth to argue, but the other continued talking before he could even try. “Now, I think it’s time for me to change. When I’m gone, you two should go downstairs until I get back, yeah? Don’t want anything bad happening to you two, do we now?”

“I don’t know, do we?” Janus commented slyly, clearly his way of messing with Remus.

“Don’t make me change my mind, Vera,” Crocodile called as he made his way to his bedroom, getting ready to change into his suit. 

After he left, there was an uncomfortable silence between Patton and Janus. The student cast a few glances at the other and he wanted to say something but… he didn’t know what. He hated the silence, but he couldn’t find a way to break it. So the two of them just remained silent until Remus came back. Which, luckily, wasn’t long.

He came back wearing his black and green suit, carrying his mask in his hand as he looked between the two. “I’m sensing the chemistry between you two,” he commented dryly as he walked to the table to grab the Crocodile Hunter out of the drawer he kept it in — of course he wasn’t going to go all the way over there without one of the best weapons out there right now. “I hope you two will get along, cause you’re going to need to stay down there until I get back.” He continued to walk around, grabbing some guns and knives from unexpected places. “There’s bedrooms down there, as well as a bathroom and a kitchen area with food. You know, in case it takes a while for me to get back. Just make sure not to touch the labeled containers, yeah?”

“Are you sure this whole charade is necessary?” Janus asked, clearly not looking forward to being trapped down there for however long it took Remus to get back. 

“Caesar tried to have both of you killed once before, I’m not fucking risking anything,” the other answered without giving Janus even a short glance. “So yes. It’s necessary. Get over it.”

Janus hummed softly, not quite content with the answer, but he remained quiet. Patton, on the other hand, looked worried. Not so much about his own fate, but Remus’. 

“Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” he asked, coming up behind the older man. 

“I’ve dealt with worse,” Remus assured him, turning around to look at the young journalist. “Don’t worry. I’ll be fine. Just… stay down there and make sure to check your phone in case I need you, yeah?”

Patton nodded, giving him a small smile. “Yeah,” he said. “I can do that.”

“Good,” Crocodile grinned. “Now… I should head out. You two get down.”

“Be safe,” Patton said, hugging Remus carefully. It was an impulsive move, shocking both of them. Remus returned the hug hesitantly, ruffling the student’s hair slightly. 

“Of course,” he promised. “You too, yeah?” 

“I will.”

Remus smiled and nudged the student before turning to Janus. “Am I gonna get an emotional goodbye from you as well?”

Janus responded with an eyeroll. “Don’t die,” he simply responded. Which was good enough for Remus. 

“Thanks, boo,” he smiled. “Now, off you go.”

He nodded in the direction of the hidden doorway and waited for the two others to go downstairs and closed the door. Only then, did he leave the house, locking the door behind him.


	28. Danse Macabre

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: violence, slight gore, attempted murder, successful murder, major character death, agression

Remus drove back to the city, knowing exactly where to go. Virgil was at Brand Tower, but he was not going to park immediately in front of the building. That would be a death sentence. He still didn’t park too far away, though, since something told him that he would need an easy access to his car once he managed to get to Virgil. 

Once the car was parked, Remus put on his mask and strapped the Crocodile Hunter to one of his thigh holsters. When he had taken those preparations, Remus got out of the car, walking up to the nearest building and jumping to the roof with ease. He needed to jump on a few different roofs until he made it to the building next to Brand Tower. From there on, he remained low, knowing that there would be guards outside of the tower. If they saw him, they would immediately alert Caesar. So, he needed to get past them without them seeing him. How lucky, then, that he was a master assassin. 

Remus crawled to the edge of the roof, staying low as he reached into his boot for his gun. In his other boot, he kept a silencer, which he smoothly put on the gun. Once this was taken care of, he risked a look over the ledge to get a glimpse at the situation in front of him. There were three people positioned on top of the entrance hall. Four more on the roof on the lower sides, where the building was only three floors tall. On top of that, there were a few people patrolling on the ground. Couldn’t be more than four. Easy. 

The two on the side closest to Remus were the first to go, since they were by far the easiest targets. Two shots and they were down. Two shots more and the two others were out. The three on top of the entrance building were the next. By the time the first two of them were down, one guard was still alive, seeing their companions drop down. Remus was confident that he killed them before they got the word out. He then killed two of the guards on patrol before deciding that he had no time to waste. Sooner or later, the guards would have to confirm they were still alive and the organisation would find out something was going on. He needed to move now before anyone caught on. 

In one swift move, he slid his gun in his boot again and jumped down onto the small square in front of the tower. He made sure that no one could be watching him as he swiftly stepped inside the building. Crocodile moved through the entrance hall, which was mostly empty, save for some pretentious statues to look pretty and fancy. From the entrance hall, he walked into the lobby.

It was a large room, with a high ceiling, reaching up to the third floor. There were small balconies on the higher floors, allowing view of what was going on downstairs. Those balconies could prove to be rather dangerous in a battle, but Remus was confident that he could handle it if he had to. As long as he remained vigilant. There was an elevator to his right, but Remus was intent on going upstairs by walking up to the small mezzanine at the end of the hall, allowing entrance to the hallway on the second floor. There was more chance to ambush him, but they could track his movements with the elevator and if they caught him, he would be in a dead end. The stairs were the saver option. They gave him space and he knew that if anyone tried to attack him, he would be able to fight his way out of that one.

“You are many things, Crocodile,” a smooth voice called from above him before he could approach the stairs. “But I’d never thought you’d be dumb enough to show your face around here.”

Dragon jumped down from the second floor, dressed in her own black and dark purple armour-like suit, including her mechanical, dragon-like wings. 

“What can I say? I missed my brother,” he shot back with a challenging look at the woman in front of him. “Surely, I can pay him a visit?”

He studied her intently, curious to see if she would actually dare to use her powers inside, where she could run the risk of setting the entire place on fire, or if she would play it smart and save. 

“He’s occupied right now,” Dragon retorted, a slight orange flash in her eyes signifying that she was raising her own body temperature, in turn warming up the metal that covered her body. “I’ll show you the door.”

She lunged towards Remus, clapping her wings once to give her an extra push forwards. Crocodile barely ducked underneath her fist, though he still felt the heat radiating off her. It didn’t seem like she was intent on using her ability to create fire, though. 

Dragon turned around swiftly to deliver a blow with her wings. It wasn’t strong, but enough to throw Remus off balance. She immediately followed it up with a roundhouse kick. Remus was on time to turn his skin into steel, but he still felt the heat and he still stumbled back with the impact. Even though he regained his balance quickly, he let Dragon stalk a little bit closer so he could hit her with two punches and a spinning hook kick in rapid succession. This put some distance between the two of them and gave Remus the time to get the Crocodile Hunter out of its holster.

“Let’s give this baby a try, huh?” he muttered, taking aim and pulling the trigger as quickly as he could, to avoid giving Dragon much time to recover. 

She was hit with a large blast of energy, pushing her back into one of the poles supporting the mezzanine. Whether it actually got rid of her powers was still a mystery at that point, though. Remus put the gun away again and prepared to jump up to the mezzanine, hoping to avoid much more trouble, but Dragon wasn’t so easy to get rid of, unfortunately. It seemed that her armour had absorbed a big portion of the energy behind the blast that hit her, allowing her to survive the hit, even when she would be sore tomorrow. She pushed herself up and used her wings to fly herself forward, grabbing Remus’ throat. 

She pinned Remus to the wall, holding him in place with surprising strength. However, it of course was not strong enough for a man with superhuman strength. He knew he could easily overpower her, but decided to play along for the time being. Just until he found the perfect moment. But then. Dragon’s free hand slowly slipped to the holster on his thigh; a move that certainly didn’t go unnoticed. 

“What are you up to?” Crocodile asked as he gripped her wrist tightly, pulling her hand away with ease. “You know I don’t swing that way.”

“You sure you don’t want to experiment?” she smirked cockily, causing Remus to shake his head. 

“I’m sorry, love,” he responded, “while ‘people who want me dead’ is _exactly_ my type… I’ll have to refuse.”

Immediately, Remus jumped up just enough to hit Dragon’s shoulder with a 12-6 elbow. A loud clang echoed through the hall as his steel skin made impact with the villain’s armour, but she felt the blow nonetheless and let go, hissing in pain. 

This was followed up by a jumping push kick, putting more distance between the two and Remus almost immediately continued with a cartwheel kick, putting his right hand on the floor to allow himself to bring his legs up and kick the side of Dragon’s face. She fell to the ground, out of commission for at least a little bit. A move like this would have rendered almost anyone unconscious, but of course, Dragon had to be the tough one. Partially due to her armour, partially due to all the training she had to endure after she’d been made part of the organisation. Hell, Remus was even one of the people to train her. She’d had to endure a lot in her training to make sure she was fit for the jobs Roman wanted her for. But even she was dazed by this kick. More than enough for him to get out of here.

But before Remus could even enjoy this small victory, an energy whip wrapped itself around his fist, pulling back. He looked at his hand for a fraction of a second, not even needing to think where it came from. With all his might, he pulled against the force of the whip, overpowering Dynamo quite easily. A slight yelp echoed through the room as she fell from the balcony she had positioned herself on. Thinking quickly, she held up one of her hands and shot another whip around the handrail to catch her just before she hit the ground. 

Dangling from the handrail, she shot another whip at Remus, which the other deflected by throwing up his arm to activate the electric shield The Inventor had made. As the whip made contact with the shield, as their energy signatures met, the whip seemed to absorb some of the shield’s energy, giving off a strong shock to Dynamo. She let out a soft yelp and instinctively made her whip disappear. At the same time, she lost her focus, so that the one holding her up faded away and she dropped back on the ground, glaring at Remus as he disabled the shield. 

“You’re not gonna get away with this so easily, Croc,” she glared as she ran forwards, aiming two leopard punches at Remus, which were easily deflected, just like the crescent kick aimed at his ankles, though the attack did distract him slightly — a huge mistake on his part. Not so easily deflected was the knee strike/elbow smash combo that followed after, hitting Remus in both the stomach and the throat. Even though his steel skin prevented these attacks from doing any damage, they still put him off balance and allowed Dynamo some time to wrap a whip around his neck, pulling him down to the ground swiftly. His chin made contact with the floor with a loud clang.

Crocodile rolled to the side, avoiding a kick that was most definitely aimed at his face, and stayed low to sweep her feet away and get up himself. As he did, though, Dynamo shot another whip at his ankle and used his momentarily instability to throw him to the side, giving her the time to get up without having to worry about Remus attacking.

He slid across the floor, to the middle of the lobby. Once he got to a halt, Remus got to his feet and immediately ran at his opponent. When he deemed himself close enough, the man jumped up, wrapping his legs around Dynamo’s neck. He let himself fall back and twisted his body to the side, easily throwing his opponent to the ground. He caught himself and jumped up again, just in time to see Dragon picking up her fighting spirit. Of course. Just as he thought he was done. Fucking typical.

Dragon ran forwards, jumping up with a slight clap of her wings to lift her higher into the sky. This helped her land a kick on Remus’ jaw, for once, catching the man off guard. She landed on the ground, supporting herself with one hand on the floor and swept Remus’ feet away from underneath him. Another loud clang was heard when his now-steel skin made contact with the floor. 

Remus jumped to his feet quickly, trying to sweep Dragon’s feet away in return, but she flew up ever so slightly to avoid this. As she landed, Remus threw a punch that she only just dodged. Then, she clapped her wings to help her gain just a little bit more altitude as she jumped forwards, bringing her knee up for a flying knee strike. Despite Remus’ steel skin, there was more than enough force to make him take a few steps back. He was just in time to bring his arm up to block the elbow aimed at his face. Dragon didn’t give up, though, and immediately followed with a superman punch, leaping forwards as she did so. This time, she managed to hit her mark and even made her opponent stumble back. She continued with a downward roundhouse kick to Remus’ jaw, once again using her wings to give her more momentum. 

Remus, thrown off balance for once, managed to block the fists that followed and attacked with a jab to Dragon’s ribs, more as a distraction than an actual attack. He then continued with an uppercut and pushed Dragon back with a jumping push kick to the chest. She was off balance now, and Remus finished off with an armada kick followed by a martelo; he took a step to the side and spun around before jumping up, bringing both of his legs with him in a large circle, hitting Dragon with both consecutively. Finally, he performed a skipping axe kick, knocking his opponent out cold. 

Just as Crocodile was about to claim his victory, yet another whip wrapped itself around his wrist. 

“Come on, lady Dy,” he called out to her, using this connection between them to pull his opponent closer. “You know that doesn’t work on me.” 

When he deemed her close enough, Remus hit her with a roundhouse kick. Just as he was about to go in for another attack, Dynamo wrapped one of her whips around his ankle and threw him back into the wall, leaving a crater where he had made impact. He could feel the force behind his, but luckily, his skin absorbed most of it and it shielded him from the worst of the damage. 

He jumped up as soon as he could, to avoid Dynamo grabbing him with another one of her whips and leapt forwards, bringing his knee up to hit her chin hard enough to make her fall back, seemingly knock out. Good. That was one person less to worry about. Why didn’t he do that immediately?

“It’s been lovely catching up, ladies,” Remus said with a salute, “but I’ve got some pressing business to take care of.”

He walked in the direction of the mezzanine, stopping in his tracks when he spotted movement up there. From the hallway, a figure stepped on the balcony, looking down. It was none other than Eve herself. Of course. It was only a matter of time before they brought her in. She was probably the toughest opponent for him, given her metallic skin and her new Crocodile Hunter feature. On top of that, she was a fierce fighter. Definitely a very difficult enemy to deal with.

The two of them locked eyes and Remus just caught a glint of something giving off a slight green glow as she raised her left hand. He immediately whipped up his hand to active the shield, just in time to deflect the blast of energy she shot at him. 

In the middle of all this, Remus found himself wondering who was guarding Virgil now. It obviously wasn’t Eve. 

She eventually dropped her hand and leapt forward, making a loud impact as she jumped down to the floor. Intent on taking her out as fast as he could, Remus rushed at her, aiming a successful flying knee strike to her chin. This was immediately followed by a spinning kick, hitting her before she could even respond. His right hook was deflected, though. Eve pushed his arm to the side and tried to hit him with an uppercut, but Remus blocked this one. What he couldn’t block was the headbutt she followed up with, which managed to hit his chin with surprising force.

Having caught the Crocodile off guard, Eve was able to hit him with another green energy blast fired from her hand. He flew a few feet back, crashing into the floor, but with his steel skin, he did more damage to the floor than the floor to him. However, as he got up, Remus noticed a weird pulse travelling through the room and he felt his powers slipping away, unable to protect him. As he looked up, he saw a faint glow coming from something on Eve’s right wrist. So that had to be the Crocodile Hunter upgrade she got, then. Well shit. 

Nevertheless, Remus got back on his feet, determined to take Eve down anyways. He might not have his steel skin anymore, but he knew he still had his superhuman strength. No Crocodile Hunter could ever take that away from him. 

Eve had approached and attacked with a hook kick. Remus ducked underneath it and caught her off guard with a low kick to the stomach. Despite him not having his steel skin anymore, his superhuman strength still allowed for enough power to push her back. Remus took use of this situation by hitting her with a scorpion kick; he put his hands on the floor to support himself as he brought one of his legs up, hitting Eve’s jaw successfully. The contact hurt him more than he was used to, but he had experienced much worse than this little inconvenience. And at least it hadn’t been easy on her either, judging by the way she struggled to maintain her balance. 

When she had recovered, Eve tried to return with another headbutt. Remus, however, knowing he had to play more defensively here, went for an aú batido, performing a handstand while twisting his hips to kick at his attacker before she could finish the attack. As it was a defensive move, it didn’t do her much harm, but it saved Remus some. 

Eve took a few small steps back, giving Remus the chance to get up before she rushed at him with a backfist, immediately followed up by another punch. The first one hit its mark, colliding with Remus’ jaw. The other one got blocked. As he caught it, Eve’s right hand changed. The metal moved to form a long knife, starting at the wrist and covering the back of her hand, ending past her fingertips.

She aimed a right hook at him, which he avoided by letting himself fall down, catching himself with his hands behind him. Next, he lifted one of his hands to protect his face from possible attacks and rested one leg on the floor. He made a small jump to give him enough momentum to aim a round kick at Eve’s face. She easily blocked the attack, but this move gave Remus the opportunity to get up and put a little more distance between the two of them.

Eve threw another right hook at Crocodile, trying to stab him with her hand-knife. He just moved to the side, grabbing her arm and aiming a backward elbow strike at her hand specifically, hard enough to cause significant damage to her hand as well as the attached knife. 

She hissed, more in anger than pain, due to her inability to feel any pain, and fired another blast at Remus with her left hand. He flew through the air again, but this time, the impact hurt him more than last time, without his steel skin to protect him. This was a very new experience to him, and he did not like it one bit.

Nevertheless, he pushed himself up, ignoring the pain in his back and shoulders, and looked at his opponent, confident to put an end to this right now. He’d had quite enough of the fighting, and he wanted to get to Virgil as quickly as he could. 

He approached Eve. When he was close enough, Remus jumped. His body flipped through the air, both of his legs outstretched in a kick before landing on the ground effortlessly, his enemy staggering backwards from the force of the blows. 

When he landed again, Remus took a moment to catch his breath. Eve seemed to be… done. She wasn’t knocked out, but since she was mostly a robot at this point, that was difficult to achieve. She wouldn't put up much of a fight, and that was enough for Remus to take his leave, anyways. He seemed to have done a decent amount of damage, too. Which meant it would take some time to repair her. Which in turn meant an easier opening for him to kill Roman one of these days. So… it was a win-win kind of situation. For him, at least. 

“I have to say… that was impressive. Even for you,” an all-too-familiar voice called from above Remus. Speak of the devil. He took a step back to look at the source of the voice; his very own brother, standing on top of the mezzanine. However, he wasn’t alone. No, just in front of him, in a chokehold, was none other than Virgil, hands cuffed in front of him. And one of Roman’s hands, ungloved, lingered dangerously close to his face. Roman’s eyes darted to Eve, who had pushed herself into a sitting position. “Stand down.” 

Eve immediately responded, the light on her right wrist slowly faded away as she disabled her newest upgrade. This would allow Roman to pose an actual threat instead of just throwing around empty words.

“Look, I’m gonna make this easy for you,” Caesar said, making smug eye contact with Remus. “Either, you give yourself up now and I leave our dearest meteorologist here unharmed. Or you don’t, I kill him and then you. What would you prefer?”

Remus narrowed his eyes, but didn’t respond. Instead, he took a little bit of time to analyse his situation. Right now, he couldn’t shoot Roman. He was hidden behind Virgil and there was a chance he might hit _him_ instead. But maybe he could jump up there and knock Roman out up close before he could harm Virgil. His steel skin would be able to work again, which meant he was protected from Roman’s death-touch, so… 

“Don’t even bother, Death Dealer,” Virgil scowled, causing a slight smile to appear on Remus’ face. At least Virgil still sounded like Virgil. “I’ve got a better idea.”

He immediately threw his head back, headbutting Roman harshly. The man stumbled back in shock, but he did let go. Virgil just managed to move his arms enough to elbow him in the stomach and run away from Caesar before he could grasp him. 

“Remus,” he called out as he ran over to the handrail. “I’m trusting you here.”

Before Remus could ask what he meant, the hero jumped over the handrail, deeming it the quickest way to get away from Roman. Crocodile cursed under his breath as his heart seemed to stop. He leapt to catch Virgil, just in time before he hit the ground. 

“Eve,” Roman commanded as he strode down the staircase. 

“I got it, boss,” she responded, immediately activating her newest application again. Remus noted with a sense of pride that she sounded exhausted, or damaged at the very least.

Remus smiled at Virgil, relieved to see him again. “Give me your hands,” he said softly, looking down at the shackles around his wrists. Virgil frowned slightly in confusion, but did so anyway, and in a second or two, Remus managed to break the shackles, allowing the other free movement once more. Although this did take him a fair bit of power to achieve. The shackles weren’t weak, after all. 

“Here,” Crocodile said, slipping one of the shield-bracelets off his wrists and handing it to Virgil. “Felt like you might need this.”

Virgil smiled as he took the bracelet into his hand. “Thanks,” he said, eyeing Roman, who approached the two of them now. “We got incoming.”

Remus nodded, turning around. “Don’t worry,” he told the other. “I got this. You stay here, yeah?” 

“I don’t think I have a choice,” Virgil stated, earning a chuckle from Remus. “So… I guess.”

In any other situation, he would have argued for the chance to help the other out in his fight, but right now… he didn’t feel like he was in shape to do such a thing. After all… he was subjected to torture for- however long he’d been here. So maybe… he’d just have to sit back for a bit today. If Remus needed help, he’d be there. But he probably wouldn’t need much help, because… this was the fucking Crocodile! He knew what he was doing. At least a little bit.

“So…” Remus dragged with a confident grin as he sauntered closer to this brother, almost at ease. As if he wasn’t looking at the man who had tried to get him killed for the past few months. “Are you sure you wanna do this?”

Roman chuckled, clenching his fists slightly. “Haven’t been surer of anything in my life.”

In response, Remus just hummed. “Well then…” 

Before he even had a chance to do anything, Roman had already struck. He formed a dragon’s claw, with his thumb, index- and middle finger outstretched, and reached for Remus, who responded immediately by bringing up one of his hands in defense. He knew Roman’s tactics by now. In the moment after that, Crocodile responded with a quick jab to his brother’s ribs, hitting his mark. 

The next punch Remus threw was dodged; Roman twisted to his right to avoid the punch, turning his back to his brother. He then grabbed Remus’ wrist tightly and pulled back his left arm to deliver a blow to the elbow. But before he could, Remus had already pulled back his arm, easily overpowering Roman due to his superior strength. His elbow struck Roman’s face, who stumbled back with a hand reaching up to his face instinctively, but he quickly turned around to hit his twin with an outside chop. 

Remus was just a second too late to dodge or block this, and he stepped to the side, the strong hit to the side of his neck sending him off balance. He willingly dropped himself to the ground to prevent another attack from his brother and kicked up at him, managing to hit him in the chest before pushing himself up. 

Roman threw two more punches that Remus could block, followed by a roundhouse kick that hit with surprising force. Remus took a few steps back before throwing himself at Roman with a flying knee strike to Caesar’s chin. And while it certainly made him fall back, it didn’t knock him out. Had to be the excess of energy he stole from others. It didn’t only heal and rejuvenate him, it had also enhanced his durability over time. On top of that, it had also enhanced his strength, although Remus’ strength was still superior, with ease. 

Immediately, Roman moved to support himself with one hand, swiping Remus’ legs away and causing him to fall. He then moved over just as the latter was about to push himself up or go in for an attack, and wrapped his legs around Remus in a triangle choke; one leg over his right shoulder, the other underneath his left arm. 

In response, Remus pushed himself up slightly, trying to stretch his legs to gain advantage over Roman. He then reached out with his left arm, grabbing onto the back of his brother’s neck and, with a little bit more of a struggle, added his right arm as well. Then, he let himself slide back, bringing Roman’s head forwards with him, towards his twin’s chest. This forced the other to open his guard and release the grip he had with his legs to prevent significant damage to his neck. Lastly, Remus moved himself out of the way of Roman’s legs, before getting up. 

“Come on, you know that doesn’t work on me,” he taunted with a smile as he blocked a kick Roman aimed at his jaw before jumping up. “I thought you knew better.”

Roman shrugged, pulling back a fist. “It was worth a shot,” he reasoned as he threw a punch. 

“True,” Remus said as he spun out of the way, turning his back to Roman’s fist for a moment. “Too bad you failed.”

He wrapped an arm around Roman’s neck, turning his hip to the side slightly and bent forwards, pulling his brother with him and throwing him to the ground. Roman kicked himself up easily and hit a palm strike at Remus. This was immediately followed by him turning around and dropping to his left knee. He supported himself with his hands as his right foot came up to kick at Remus’ knee, almost causing his twin to fall over. 

Remus managed to keep his footing, though, and spun around. He then jumped and brought both his legs up in a circle, hitting Roman with an armada com martelo. Caesar let himself fall and rolled out of the way. When he kicked himself back up, he immediately attacked his twin with a switch kick; kicking with his left leg and immediately after, even before his leg was back on the ground, following with a right kick. He followed that up with a right hook, but Remus managed to duck underneath it. 

Crocodile immediately followed this up with a handstand, bringing his legs up to wrap around Roman’s neck. He made sure to keep a tight grip as he flipped back, taking Roman with him and slamming him to the ground. Remus then rolled to the side, grabbing the gun out of his boot before Roman could get up. It was now or never. 

But, apparently… it turned out to be never. Because from his position on the ground, Roman kicked up at the inside of Remus’ wrists with an inside to outside kick, hitting the gun away from him. He immediately followed with a tiger front sweep; he pushed himself up slightly and turned around before placing his hand on the floor. He extended his right leg to the back and turned once more, sweeping Remus’ legs away. This caused the Crocodile to fall to the ground, releasing the gun in the process. 

Caesar reached into his sleeve, unsheathing a knife he had hidden there, strapped around his forearm. He then moved towards Remus, who was just in the process of getting up. Roman wrapped his free arm around him, to grab onto the front of his brother’s shirt, putting his weight on the other to keep him down. Then, the other hand came around Remus’ throat, pushing the knife into the skin. Roman moved, twisting his body slightly to rest more weight on Remus’ head and push it down. Without his steel skin, Remus would not be able to protect himself from the knife pressed around his throat. Even with his strength, his current position was uncomfortable, to say the least.

One thing they hadn’t accounted for, though, was Virgil. And the gun still laying around. Okay, that’s two things, but you get the idea. 

Virgil was still standing there, watching as the scene unfolded before him. He set his eyes on the gun as soon as Remus dropped it, making sure he would be able to get to it in case anything went bad. And he had the feeling that this was that moment.

Without a second thought, the hero lunged at the weapon and grabbed it, squeezing one eye shut as he took aim, hands trembling. He hated this so much. But he had no choice. He had to help Remus. Virgil hesitated slightly, trying to find the right target, and eventually pulled the trigger, the bullet going through Roman’s back. Caesar flinched as the bullet hit, immediately ceasing his attempts to kill his twin. Said twin, in return, managed to flip the two of them over and pin the other to the ground.

As Virgil shot, Eve whipped around, immediately looking at Virgil, who was still pointing a gun at her boss. She raised a hand, ready to hit him with an energy blast from her hand, but Virgil was just in time to activate the shield Remus had given him, successfully blocking the attack. In the meantime, he used the gun in his other hand to shoot at her. The bullets didn’t hit her lethally; she was too well protected by her metal… upgrades. But, they did do considerable damage to those metal upgrades. Eventually, she was forced to cease her attack, as it cost her too much energy to keep going, as well as blocking the two heroes’ powers _and_ still keeping herself alive. 

In the meantime, Remus found himself hovering over his older brother, pinning him to the ground easily as his knee pressed down onto Roman’s chest. He had pinned his wrists down with one hand, the other holding a knife to his throat, feeling so very victorious

“Go on then,” he smirked down at the oh-so-great Caesar. “Beg.”

Roman scoffed, looking up at his brother with a mocking gaze despite slowly bleeding out on the floor. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me.” Remus leaned in a little bit closer, but he made sure he was not in headbutt-range. “Beg for mercy. Beg for me to spare your miserable little life.”

“I don’t suppose that would change much,” Caesar commented with an eyebrow raise. 

Remus chuckled, enjoying their position way too much. “It won’t,” he confirmed, pressing his knee down just a bit more. “It’ll just make this more fun to me.”

Roman’s eyes darted to the side as he tried to think of his next move. He couldn’t do much from his position, but if there was a chance that Eve could help him, he might be able to do so much more. Except when he called her name, Remus whipped his head around, only to see Eve still occupied with Virgil — something that took up most of her energy. 

“Looks like your little pitbull is a bit preoccupied, RoRo,” he grinned as he locked eyes with the other again. “It’s just you and me.” He tightened his grip on the knife a little bit, increasing pressure. Roman didn’t flinch in the slightest, but nevertheless, Remus enjoyed this moment so much — maybe a little too much. “It’s as you always said, isn’t it? Survival of the fittest.”

“What are you waiting for?” Roman asked, a grin playing on his face. “Having second thoughts?” 

Crocodile shook his head. “You wish,” he huffed. “I’ve been waiting for this moment for twenty goddamn years, Roman. After all the shit I let you get away with… I’m just cherishing the moment.”

“What are you talking about?” Caesar questioned innocently. “All I’ve ever done was make you better.” 

Remus scoffed. “Yeah. Right,” he said mockingly. “ _Better_ .” He took the knife off Roman’s throat and slowly but surely, pushed it into Roman’s abdomen, right between the ribs. Pushing it down until only the hilt was still visible. He made sure to look his brother in the eyes, to see his exact reaction as the weapon slid deeper, tearing tissue apart as it went. Inch by inch. And he’d feel every single moment of it. Remus would make sure. Roman gave a slight flinch, but no response otherwise, even though it _had_ to hurt. Little fucker wouldn’t give Remus the satisfaction of seeing him writhe in pain. “Would you call _that_ better, huh?” Remus twisted the knife slightly before pulling it out of the wound. Then, he moved his knee to put pressure on the fresh injury, ignoring the blood staining his outfit. “That’s all you, buddy. _You_ fucked me up this way. All of this… that’s what you made out of me. Would you say that’s _better_ ?” He put some more pressure, glaring down at the other. Yes, he was absolutely _livid_ right now, but a good part of him also enjoyed their current predicament. Looking down at his so-called brother, hovering over him in a moment of victory. He held all the cards, _he_ was in control for once. And seeing Caesar like this… it was more satisfying than he’d ever thought it would be. “ _Would you?”_

He glared at Roman, so _fucking_ tempted to snap his neck right here, right now. But that wasn’t what Roman deserved. No, he deserved so- _so_ much worse. He deserved a slow, agonizingly painful death. To have it drag out so long that he would end up begging to die, just to make it _stop_ . And if it wasn’t for Virgil being here, that’s exactly what would have happened. Remus would have made sure that Roman’s blood and brains coated the floor of the lobby. He would have shredded him apart, quite literally. He would have made sure that no one would be able to recognize him as Caesar anymore. There would be nothing left of him to call a person. But Virgil was here with him. Remus didn’t want to do that in front of him. He didn’t know what the hero would think of him if he just… did _that_. No matter how much the asshole deserved it. He didn’t want Virgil to see the monster he was.

“I just want you to know one more thing,” Remus hissed as he locked eyes with his brother again, leaning in a little bit closer. “What I’m about to do, is so much more merciful than what you deserve. But that’s not for your sake.” He paused for a second to smirk down at the other, who returned the look with a deadpan expression. “I just don’t want to do the Devil’s work for him. He should have something left to torture, don’t you think?”

“I’ll save you a spot.”

Crocodile scoffed. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.” He twisted the knife in his hand impatiently. “It’s truly been an honour, _Caesar_ ,” he finished in a mocking voice. “Tell the Devil your dearest brother said hi, won’t you?” Then, he finally lifted the weapon again and plunged it into Roman’s chest. Not just once. Not just twice. But twenty-three fucking times. He made sure to count them, as a way to make a point to whoever would find him. It’s what the fucker deserved. After more than twenty years of being an arrogant, egotistical asshole, he deserved this. Hell, this was even _merciful_ , considering what he’d done to Remus in the past. Part of him regretted that he couldn’t kill Roman in a way more fitting to him. But right now… Virgil was most important. He didn’t want to hurt Virgil by showing him who he truly was.

But dead was dead. And that was what mattered. 

When he was sure he was safe, Virgil walked up to Remus, who he saw was covered in bloodstains and marks that would definitely grow out into bruises when given the appropriate amount of time. He still clutched Roman’s bloodied knife in his hands as he pushed himself up, looking down at the body of his brother. And right that moment, the two of them realised what happened. They’d done it. Caesar was dead. 

Remus dropped the knife, not wanting to keep it around as the realisation hit.

“We need to get out of here.”


	29. No Mercy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: car chase, gunfire, talk of torture, murder and experiments

Remus effortlessly picked up Virgil, not hesitating as he ran in the direction of the door. He got who he came for and they couldn’t risk staying here for any longer. He himself couldn’t die so easily, unless Barrier came here, but Virgil still could. They needed to get out. And he was faster than Virgil. 

As they ran out, Remus barely noticed the absence of Dragon in the hall.

As quickly as he could, Crocodile ran over to his car, placing Virgil in the passenger’s seat before taking his own seat. He didn’t bother fastening his seatbelt. He didn’t even bother taking off his mask, but instead took off immediately. They needed to get out of the city as soon as possible, because he had a feeling they would not get away this easily. 

“You still got that gun?” Remus asked as he drove away. He was going in the opposite direction of where they actually needed to go, but he hoped that he would be able to mislead the organisation like this. If anyone did follow them, they would be looking south of town, while they needed to be up north. “Good to see you, by the way.”

“Same,” Virgil responded softly, fastening his seatbelt before grabbing the gun out of his lap. “And yeah, I do.”

“Good.” Remus checked his rearview mirror to see, indeed, a suspicious-looking car pulling up behind him. Black car, tinted windows, thick wheels? Yeah, that had shady written all over it. He didn’t trust that. “We might have to use that. And you’ll wanna hold on to something.”

He sped up slightly, just in time to make it to a traffic light before the light turned red — it wouldn’t have stopped him even if it did turn red, but he just didn’t want to deal with the rest of the traffic. Unfortunately, his chasers made it on time as well. 

The car took a few sharps turns here and there, skidding around the corners. But eventually, they made it out of town. Almost immediately, the road grew less crowded. Which was good. Remus wanted to avoid collateral damage as much as possible. It was weird how much he’d changed in the just few weeks since he started working together with Virgil. Old him wouldn’t have cared. 

“Say, Virge,” he started as he took another turn into a smaller road. “Can you see who’s in the car?”

Virgil turned around, looking at the car behind them, but he didn’t see much. A bunch of red, and something black. “Don’t know,” he said with a shake of his head. “Red Bandit, maybe. I can’t see the rest.”

Crocodile nodded, biting his lip as he looked in the rearview mirror. He couldn’t keep driving around forever; he needed to do something in order to shake them off. He took another sharp turn left, and a right immediately after. 

It wasn’t long before the shooting started. The rear window was the first to shatter and Virgil instinctively ducked, hoping that his chair would be good enough to protect him from the bullets. Remus swore as the car swerved, narrowly avoiding colliding with another car. It wouldn’t be long before this shit got out of hand. He had to do something about this, or they would all die.

“Take the wheel for a second,” Crocodile said quickly as he grabbed the gun out of Virgil’s hand. “I need to take care of this.”

He adjusted his car seat, pushing the backrest as far down as he could and moved to the backseat as Virgil protested — but he still grabbed the steering wheel, to avoid the car from crashing into anything. 

“What the hell are you doing?” Virgil hissed as he leaned to the side to grab onto the steering wheel, his eyes fixed on the road, terrified that he would lead them to a certain death. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll shield you,” Remus assured, knowing fully well that that wasn’t Virgil’s concern in this situation. The bullets still flew through the air; some embedded themselves in the headrests of the two chairs in front, some ricocheted off of Remus, and a couple hit the windows or the sides of the car. As Remus took aim, resting his arms on the headrests of the back seats, he saw movement in the back of the car chasing them, before one of the back doors opened. He shot multiple times, managing to blow out the windshield and hitting the hood twice, before he was out of bullets. But the car was still going. Crap. 

Without taking his eyes off of the car behind them, Remus reached for the Crocodile Hunter in his holster. He would have to use this one, then. In the meantime, Dragon leaned out of the car, spreading her wings tentatively before jumping out of the vehicle, immediately taking to the skies. She got up again? Damn it. Why did she have to be such a pain? 

“We’ve got a Dragon on our tail,” Remus called out as he positioned himself so he could shoot a blast of energy at the engine of the car. “Might wanna keep your eye on that.”

Virgil muttered something under his breath as he tried to keep the car on the road, but Remus didn’t hear it over the wind around him. He took one second to aim and pulled the trigger. An energy blast from the Crocodile Hunter hit the front of the car, making it swerve violently before crashing into the guardrail. That was one down. 

“I’m coming back,” Remus announced as he turned around and made his way back. Dragon was up high, and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to hit her from this position. So he decided not to risk it and just go back to steering. Virgil could still take her out if they had to. “Can you see her?”

As soon as Crocodile took the wheel again, Virgil let go and moved back to sit in his chair, looking in the rearview mirror. She was still up there, her eyes on the car as she struggled to keep up. 

“Sure thing,” Alibi nodded, taking notice of the villain in the skies. It would be difficult with the way they moved, but if he focused enough, he was sure he could find enough energy in him to create a lighting bolt. He could hit her with that and be rid of her. Hopefully. “Want me to take her out?”

“Think you can do that?”

“I can try.”

Remus considered this for a moment, almost wanting to refuse this to avoid putting too much on Virgil, but when he had to swerve to avoid a column of fire being spat at the car, he made his decision. It was too dangerous to let her fly up there. “Do it.”

Virgil nodded and clenched his fist, focussing on the electricity in the air once more. Due to the windows being broken, he now had a way better grip on the air flow than if the windows would have been whole. It was as if he could actually _feel_ the wind and the air around them and he could sense the electricity flowing through the air. He just had to redirect this the right way. It took him a lot of energy, but he felt like he would be able to do this. He stared at the mirror, making sure he would keep an eye on Dragon’s position.

The clouds packed together, looking ominous as all hell. As Virgil brought down his fist, a bright flash of lightning lit up the skies, followed almost immediately by a deafeningly loud thunderclap. When it all cleared up, Virgil thought he could just see a figure falling from the skies. 

“I think that’s her,” he breathed, feeling the impact of his actions almost immediately. He hadn’t used his powers in so long and he’d barely eaten these past few days, so it took him way more energy than he was used to. But at least he’d done it. The worst was over now. 

“Good.” Remus actually managed a smile at this. He would still take some detours to make sure that no one followed him, but he had a feeling that this was the last of it. For now, at least. The organisation would never stop until he was dead. He knew that. But he had plans. He was prepared to deal with that. However, with recent developments… he might have to change his plans a little bit.

“How are you?” Crocodile asked finally, taking the time to look at Virgil now that they had lost their pursuers. He looked like shit, but surprisingly presentable at the same time. Maybe that was just… his face in general. No matter what he’d be put through, he’d still look great. He always did. “What did they do to you?” 

Virgil shook his head, leaning his shoulder against the door of the car. “I’m fine,” he said, shooting the other a small smile in reassurance. “Don’t worry.”

“That’s not an answer, Virge.”

“It is,” he returned quickly. “You asked ‘How are you?’ and I said ‘I’m fine’. I think that qualifies as an answer.”

Remus let out a soft chuckle, shaking his head with a small smirk. His eyes were plastered on the road, but they darted to the mirrors regularly. Despite losing their chasers, he didn’t trust this. “It’s not a full answer, though,” he corrected. “I asked another question, remember?”

“Don’t worry,” Alibi repeated. “It’s nothing… permanent. Or- mostly. Just focus on the road, I’m fine.”

This did not ease Remus’ worries at all, and he turned to the man in the passenger’s seat with a raised eyebrow. “You think that will make me feel better?” he asked, returning his focus to the road ahead. “You think you repeating that you’re fine will just make me believe that you’re actually fine?”

“I mean, no but…”

“Look, you don’t wanna talk about it, I get it,” he continued. “But just say that instead, yeah? Just stressing that you’re fine will not help much either because I know for a fact you’re not.”

Virgil hummed softly as he looked outside. He knew Remus was right, but what else was there to say? He wanted to talk about it in some way, but he also didn’t feel like giving an elaborate description of everything that happened while he was in there. 

“I’m serious, though,” he shrugged. “They didn’t… do much. Just… I don’t know. Like it said, I don’t think it’s really permanent, physically. And a bunch of it was… mental, too. Like- looking through my memories, some shit. I don’t know.”

“Parasite?” Remus asked, his voice significantly colder than before. “You know that name?”

“I think so, yeah,” Virgil said, recalling the name vaguely. He took notice of how Remus’ hands seemed to clench the steering wheel tighter and tighter. “Why? Does that mean anything?”

“Yeah,” the other said, staring at the road in front of them. “It means I’m going to tear their goddamn throats out if I get my hands on them ever again.”

“Remus, it’s fine, I-”

“Are you seriously trying to defend the people that tortured you?” Remus raised another eyebrow at Virgil, his anger disappearing slightly as they locked eyes. 

There was a moment of silence before Virgil finally responded. “No? I…” He fell quiet again. Maybe he wasn’t trying to defend them, but he was definitely downplaying the situation. He didn’t want Remus to feel- whatever it was he felt, so he tried to make it seem less serious than it really was. Even if both of them were well aware of the severity of the situation.

“You are,” Crocodile stated, making a sharp turn right, making a full 180 turn. He felt like they were safe enough that he could start going in the direction of his actual hideout. 

“I’m just saying… I’m okay, Remus,” Virgil tried once more. He was repeating himself here, but he had no idea what else to do or say. “They didn’t do anything bad… relatively speaking… because they wanted to know your location. So- they held back.”

“That’s not an excuse. I’m still going to tear their throats out.” Even though he seemed to have calmed down a little bit, Remus’ hands still clenched the steering wheel so tightly that the knuckles turned slightly white.

“I’m not saying you shouldn’t,” Alibi said softly. He knew that he couldn’t stop Remus from… doing stuff like that. You know… killing. He’d killed so many people- at this point, he didn’t have any problem with it — if he ever had issues with it — and he was just as stubborn as Virgil himself. He wasn’t sure if he agreed with the method, however. “Although… a little bit more PG-13 wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

“Oh no.” Remus shook his head stubbornly. “That’s what they deserve. And even that’s merciful considering what these pieces of shit have done.”

“I know they’ve done a lot of bad shit, but still…” 

“I mean, they have, but that’s not what I’m talking about.” 

Virgil raised an eyebrow, looking at Remus for a second. What on Earth was that supposed to mean? If he wasn’t talking about literally every bad thing that those people had ever done over the past years… what was he talking about?

“What do you mean?” he asked. “If you’re not talking about that…”

“I’m talking about what they did to you, Virge.” Remus looked at Virgil for a second, a sincerity and vulnerability that he didn’t show very often shining through in his eyes. 

“I’m sorry, _what_?” Virgil couldn’t quite believe what he heard. Surely… that couldn’t be right? Him being tortured by these people didn’t justify them getting their throats torn out, did it? Not more than everything else they’ve done before this, anyways. They had to have tortured more people before that, so… why did Remus care so much about this? Why was what happened to him so much worse than anything else they had done? He didn’t understand this at all. 

“Yeah,” Remus nodded. Virgil waited for a further explanation, but found that that explanation did not follow. He opened his mouth to ask about it, but realised that he did not have the energy to actually do so. So instead, he just leaned against the door, looking at the outside absentmindedly. 

The two of them remained silent for a minute or two, just driving in the direction of the latest hideout. 

“What did she do?” Remus asked eventually, finally breaking the silence. “Parasite, I mean.” 

Virgil bit the back of his hand, his mind immediately going back to everything that happened and trying to find the words to describe it. “Just… looked through my memories,” he finally decided, “trying to find your location.”

“That’s all?”

“That’s all,” he confirmed with a nod. “I managed to send her to the cottage, so… that one’s not safe anymore, but that’s about it.”

Remus opened his mouth to say something, but it seemed that the words of the other seemed to sink in and he closed his mouth again. He gave Virgil an incredulous look, turning to the road almost immediately to avoid crashing into anything. 

“Hold up- you resisted her?” he asked, seemingly having a hard time believing this. 

“... Yes?” It was supposed to be a statement, but it came out sounding more like a question. Something about Remus’ reaction made him worried that he’d made a mistake. “Should I not have?”

“It’s not quite that you shouldn’t have,” Remus responded, “but rather… I’m surprised you _could_. Don’t think I know many people that can do that if any, other than Roman. And Morpheus, but that’s due to their own powers, so I’m not sure I should count them. Guess you’re pretty headstrong after all.” He turned to Virgil with a slight grin.

“Apparently so,” Virgil responded with a small smile. “Why’d you want to know, though?”

“The thing with Parasite is… she’s like a leech,” the other explained, doing his best to find the correct words. “Every time she invades your mind, she sucks up mental energy, taking away memories, part of your identity until you’re nothing but a mindless zombie that does whatever they’re told to. I just… wanted to know your state.”

Well then. That wasn’t disconcerting at all. She’d only done it once, so maybe it wouldn’t be too bad for him, but… she still did it once. She still took up a part of his energy. Was it something that could be restored, or was he supposed to deal with having less… energy now? Whatever that would mean.

“Then what does that mean for me?”

“For you? Nothing,” Remus assured him with a quick shake of his head. “After one time, there’s no permanent damage, she’ll try to break down your mental walls to make it easier the next time. For you, you’ll just experience a temporary dip in your energy levels. As long as you don’t run into her again. Just rest up and you’ll be fine. Thank God.”

Virgil nodded. That would explain the exhaustion he felt right after she had done whatever it was she did. And why using his powers seemed to cost him more energy than usual. At least it wasn’t permanent. That meant he could get himself back to normal. That was good. 

He cast a look to his side, studying Remus closely. He looked… good. Other than the blood on his clothes and the scrapes and bruises-to-be on his face. He didn’t look… affected by the recent events at all. 

“Re,” he said carefully, unable to tear his eyes away. “Are you… okay?” 

For a second, Remus looked at Virgil with a smile, before focusing on the road again. “Of course I am,” he nodded. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I mean… you just killed your brother,” Virgil observed. “That’s got to… I don’t know. Be a thing, right?”

Even for someone with as many victims as Remus, he couldn’t imagine that it would be easy to kill a family member. Especially a _twin_. Now, Virgil hadn’t killed many people in his lifetime, so he couldn’t speak for Remus. But he knew he wouldn’t be able to just move on from that.

“The bastard had it coming,” Crocodile justified. “And to be fair… I don’t feel bad. Honestly. He’s been fucking with me for twenty years. It’s time he got his just desserts, I’d say.”

Virgil looked at his friend for a second or two. He couldn’t say he really… agreed with that point of view, but he wasn’t surprised that Remus thought this way. But it still didn’t quite sit right with him somehow. 

“I know he was a piece of shit, but… he was also your brother.”

Remus hummed softly. “I stopped thinking of him as my brother after he had his friend inject their grey matter crap into me,” he said with a huff and Virgil noticed how his hands gripped the steering wheel tighter at the mere thought of it. 

“What?” he asked with a slight hint of confusion slipping through. 

“Forget about it,” Remus sighed as he ran one hand through his hair. “That’s a conversation for another time. Point is… I don’t care. I don’t give a crap that he’s dead because the son of a bitch had it coming for him. I’m surprised he even lived this long.”

He had to admit that yes, the death of his brother was weird. It was weird knowing that his twin, with whom he had such a complicated relationship, was now _dead_ . There was a time that he would have cared if Roman were to die. But now… he couldn’t give a damn anymore. All he could say about it was… it was weird. His entire family was dead. And the fact that he was the one to kill his only living family was strange. Just not bad. If anything, he was _glad_ that Roman was finally gone. 

“If you say so,” Virgil murmured, trying to get comfortable in his seat. He was exhausted, but not necessarily tired. Rather mentally tired. In the past days, he’d been put through hell over and over, and now he was finally safe, that seemed to catch up to him. Despite hardly getting any decent sleep, he didn’t want to sleep now. He just wanted to close his eyes and turn off his brain. He wanted to enjoy Remus’ company and a little bit of silence. He wanted to feel okay. He wanted to not feel like he was going to collapse. He just wanted to _be_ okay. 

From his soft mumble and the silence that followed, Remus made up that Virgil wasn’t in the mood to talk any more. He looked to his side and gave the other a smile, letting go of the steering wheel with one hand to gently grab one of Virgil’s hands. 

“Let’s talk later, huh?” he asked with a small smile. “You just get some rest, I’ll focus on getting us to safety.”


	30. I'd Jump off and Into Your Arms

Almost forty-five minutes later, the two arrived near the hideout. Remus parked a few minutes away from the small house once more before getting out. When he got out, he insisted on helping Virgil get to the house, despite the latter’s protests. It was quicker, and thus saver. The hero wouldn’t allow the other to carry him there, but at least he could support him, slinging an arm around his waist. 

They walked in silence to the house and when he’d unlocked the door, Remus let Virgil in first, checking out their surroundings once more before following and locking the door. 

The house was quiet, and Virgil was about to comment on this fact, since he had expected at least Patton to be here. But Remus already gestured him in the direction of a bookshelf. He grabbed onto two books and pulled on them slightly, pushing the shelf to the side, revealing a door leading downstairs. 

“Let’s go down there,” he said with a quick nod to the staircase. “It’s safer than up here.”

Virgil nodded slightly, making his way downstairs. Remus stayed by his side the entire time, making sure that he was actually alright to do this. Even though a part of Virgil protested this, he didn’t speak out any of that. He hadn’t had much exercise over the past couple of days so… he kind of understood where it came from. That didn’t mean that he liked it, though. 

Once at the bottom of the stairs, the two found themselves in a well-lit living area. There was a couch, a coffee table and even a small kitchen area, lacking a stove, but including a fridge, microwave and sink. There were three doors to the right of the room. 

Patton was sat at the dining table, working on something on his laptop. As soon as the two of them walked in, he looked up. A grin spread on his face as soon as he saw them. 

“You made it!” he smiled broadly as he got up to make his way over to them. Almost immediately, he flung himself at Remus, hugging him tightly. Remus, although caught off guard by this gesture, returned it awkwardly. He wasn’t the person to hug all that much and this was an unexpected move. But where he previously would have pushed Patton aside immediately, he just patted the student’s head awkwardly. 

“Of course,” he said, flashing his trademark smirk as the student pulled away. “Did you have any doubts?”

“Fears is a better word,” Patton shrugged, giving the smallest smile in return. “It’s mostly Janus, though. In his own way.”

Virgil frowned as the student turned to him, asking him if he was okay with being hugged — he didn’t know how he felt, after all. “Yeah, yeah, of course,” the hero answered with a confused nod. “Who's Janus?” 

“Oh, that’s Dorian,” Patton hummed as he wrapped his arms around Virgil, way more gently than he’d done to Remus. If he was seriously injured, he didn’t want to cause him any more pain. “It’s his real name. Long story.”

“He’s here?” Virgil couldn’t help but wonder why. Why would he be here? Was it a coincidence, or had Caesar and his buddies gone after him already? 

Patton hummed in confirmation “Yeah,” he said softly. “He came by yesterday, said he needed a hiding place.”

So he knew that Caesar was aware of his betrayal, then. That was… good? In a way? At the very least Janus was safe, so that was something. At least Virgil didn’t have to deal with knowing he had caused someone’s death. 

“I’m so glad you’re here, though,” Patton smiled as he pulled away. “I was worried sick! Do you need anything?”

Virgil shook his head. “Not right now, I just wanna… take a nap for a year or so,” he muttered, rubbing his forehead. “Thank you, though.” 

One of the three doors opened on the side, revealing none other than Janus Vera. And other than the old scars on his face, he seemed to be… totally okay. As far as Virgil could tell, anyways. He was alive.

“I see you made it back,” Janus said, his expression and tone unreadable as ever. “Good.”

Something about his attitude was… off. Virgil couldn’t say what, since he didn’t know Janus well enough to actually say what was different about him, but he knew that  _ something  _ was. He knew the other hadn’t acted like this the last time they spoke. He seemed more… closed off, in a way. But Virgil couldn’t elaborate much further.

“I’m glad to see you’re still okay,” Virgil said softly as he looked at the other, walking into the room. 

“Yeah, me too,” Janus nodded, barely even looking at the hero. “Thanks for keeping your word about not telling on me, huh?”

Ah. There it was. There was the reason he acted so weirdly. He knew that it was Virgil who had sold him out. Caesar and his men had come after him, and he somehow figured out that it had to be Virgil who had given him away. 

“Look, I’m sorry,” the hero said, feeling his heart sink. It was never his intention to give him away, but Remy… he had no control of what he said. “I didn’t want to, but-”

“So what, you’re okay to protect Remus at all costs but I don’t matter enough to you?” Janus snapped. “I help you and you want to get me killed?”

“No, listen,” Virgil tried. He glanced at Remus, who looked like he was about to step in, and held up a hand to assure him that he was fine. Remus tilted his head in doubt, but Virgil ignored this, turning back to Deceit instead. “I never wanted to, but Remy, they… I don’t know what they did, but…”

“Remy?” Janus interrupted, his head finally snapping up. His gaze shifted to Remus slightly, seeing if they were on the same page. “Morpheus?” He looked back at Virgil, waiting for an answer. 

The hero shook his head. “I don’t know,” he admitted, recognizing the name but only because Remus had mentioned it an hour prior. “Their last name is Cicada, if that… means anything?”

“That’s Morpheus,” Janus confirmed with a nod. His attitude shifted immediately once more. Seemingly this name… meant something to him. “They spoke to you?”

Virgil nodded. “Yeah. I never wanted to give you away, but… I had no choice, I just… couldn’t…”

“I get it,” the other said, looking away. “They have their… mind control thing. You’re pretty much powerless against that. It sucks, but… that’s not your fault.”

It didn’t mean that he was happy with the developments but Remy was a real child of a bitch. Their powers were  _ strong. _ As far as Janus knew, there wasn’t anyone that could resist their powers. Maybe Parasite. And yet, Morpheus was always the second choice when it came to interrogations. It made sense; they wanted to save their strongest weapon as a last resort. And Parasite had some side effects that could be beneficial. But still- it was an interesting tactic. They could achieve so much if the two teamed up, letting Remy get what they needed and then allowing Parasite to wipe their victim’s mind. But they didn’t work like that. Getting the two to work together was… quite a task. They were too different, yet too similar at the same time. They never worked well together. 

Virgil hummed in agreement as he sat down on the couch. He needed to sit down and just rest for a little bit. There was so much he had to deal with and he just wanted to rest. Sure, he was glad to be back here, to see the others again. But he was exhausted. He hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in… ever since he’d been captured. Sleeping when you were bound to a chair wasn’t the most comfortable position, after all. His neck still hurt from that.

“How did you know their name?” Remus asked curiously as he stepped closer to the other. “If you… can tell. If you want to.”

“They… well, they were my best friend,” he admitted, pulling his legs on the couch and wrapping his arms around them. “They were also the one to sell me out to Caesar apparently, so that friendship’s done.”

Remus frowned slightly as he sat down next to him. “Shit, that…”

“It’s fine,” Virgil said, hating the turn this conversation had taken. It was all so… fucking emotional. He didn’t want any pity just because his best friend turned out to be an ass. He could deal with that. “I’ve had enough time to think about it. Don’t need any more of that now.”

“Right,” Crocodile nodded, immediately getting up. He seemed quite fidgety, more so than normally. Whether it was the stress, the relief, or the fact that he wanted to smoke a cigarette but likely couldn’t due to ventilation difficulties, Virgil wasn’t sure. But it was unusual, that was sure. "You should eat something. Just a bit."

He got up and walked to the fridge, getting out a small plastic container and opening one of the drawers to look for a fork. Virgil eyed his movements closely. His mind told him it might be the best choice to eat something, but at the same time, the thought didn't appeal to him. 

“Thanks,” Virgil said as Remus approached, holding out the container to him. “How long has it been anyways?”

He saw the reluctance shining through in Remus’ eyes as he asked the question, but after a slight glare from Virgil, he responded. “About a week.”

Alibi looked up from the container he held in his hands. “A  _ week _ ? I’ve been there for a week?” 

He wasn’t sure what he had expected. Longer or shorter, he wasn’t sure but a week was not what he’d expected to hear. His sense of time really had been messed up in his time being locked up down there. 

“Yeah.” Remus didn’t have anything else to say to that. It had been a week and while that was relatively short, knowing Caesar would have much more in mind, it was still a week too long. He wished he’d been able to get him out of there earlier. 

Virgil grimaced as he looked at the container, which seemed to contain some small bits of watermelon. Honestly… not an unwelcome sight. “At least that’s that,” he muttered, popping one cube of watermelon in his mouth. It tasted so much better than he remembered, and so much better than a watermelon realistically should, but it had just been… too long since he had actual food. So he wasn’t complaining.

“Oh, by the way,” Remus started after a brief silence, rubbing his hands together as he sat down again. “I have some good news.”

Janus raised his eyebrow, looking at the other. “Oh?” he asked, giving no other response to the information. “Do tell.”

“The great tyrant of the city is finally dead,” Remus beamed — he was definitely way too happy to be sharing this information, given the fact that it was his own brother he was talking about. But then again… this was  _ Remus.  _ He’d been around death and gore for probably half his life, to the point where he became desensitized to it. Not to mention the feud between the two brothers. Not anything that would justify this glee to most people, but in Remus’ eyes, it most certainly did.

“Caesar?” Patton asked softly, looked at the man with wide eyes. 

“The one and only,” Crocodile nodded. “I killed him. With a little help from Virgil. But I did the most work.”

“Good,” Janus muttered. He gave no visible reaction to the news, other than a small nod. “Serves him right.”

The four of them remained silent for a while, each processing the information in their own way. Remus had to admit he would have loved to give a more elaborate account of the event itself, but Patton was there and he had a feeling the kid wouldn’t want to hear things like that, so he held it to himself. A first for him. 

In the meantime, Virgil busied himself with eating some of the watermelon, although he made sure not to take too much. When he decided he’d had enough, he put the lid back on and placed the container on the table in front of him. Even then, the small group remained silent, not knowing if there was anything worth saying right now. Virgil just wanted to sleep, and the others just… didn’t know what to do. 

“You happen to have a shower down here?” Virgil asked finally, feeling desperate to break the silence. It made him way too uncomfortable. “I feel like I can use one.”

Remus nodded. “I do,” he simply said. He’d built this basement as a place to safely reside for an indefinite period of time, if he ever needed to disappear. So, of course there was a small bathroom here. As well as two bedrooms. Just in case he ever needed to hide someone else with him — specifically Janus. Remus always knew that he would end up on Roman’s bad side sooner or later. 

He got up, helping Virgil to his feet as well, despite the latter’s small protests. Virgil appreciated the help, but at the same time, he wanted to do it himself, because he was  _ sure _ he could. Why was Remus acting like a concerned mother hen all of a sudden anyways?

Remus opened the first door on the right wall, allowing entrance to a small bathroom. Complete with a sink, toilet and shower. It wasn’t big, but just big enough for a bathroom. Especially once that was actually meant for temporary use. 

After a quick explanation on how the shower worked and where to find everything he might need, Remus turned around to leave Virgil alone so he could take a shower in privacy. But then, the latter turned back around. 

“Re,” he said softly, stopping the other in his tracks. “Can I borrow some clothes? I feel like… I should change.”

Remus immediately spun around, giving a nod. “Of course,” he nodded. “I’ll be right back.”

Virgil leaned against the wall as the other left, waiting for his return. It wasn’t long before Remus came back with a simple black shirt, a blue and black flannel, and some sweatpants. 

“I figured you’d want to stick with something familiar, huh?” he teased slightly as he handed the set of clothes to Virgil. “Enjoy.” He gave the other a quick wink, before he left for real, allowing Virgil to enjoy his privacy as he showered. 

About twenty minutes later, Virgil stepped out of the bathroom, pulling the sleeves of the oversized flannel over his hands. “I… think I’m going to try and get some sleep,” he said softly, looking at the three others on the couch. “Where can I… go?”

“Oh, yeah, I’ll show you.” Remus got up immediately and walked to the door next to the bathroom. “Here you go.” 

He opened the door and let Virgil in. It wasn’t a terribly big or special room. Remus hadn’t cared to decorate much, since he didn’t intend on it being a permanent hideout. So all there was in the room was a king size bed, a nightstand with a lamp and a small drawer to store clothes in. It wasn’t much, but it was more than enough to fulfill its purpose. 

“Thanks,” Virgil said softly as he turned around to face the other. “And I... wanted to thank you as well. Because you know… you did save me back there.”

“Of course,” Crocodile smiled. “I couldn’t let Mister Sinister hurt everyone’s favourite weather man.”

Virgil managed a small smile at the comment. “Well, I still appreciate it,” he said. “I also managed to see some of you in action. You looked pretty great.”

Remus smirked. “What can I say? I’ve been training for years.”

Virgil snorted softly as he stepped closer, wrapping his arms around Remus’ waist. Pulling the other a little bit closer, he closed his eyes, taking a moment to calm himself down. He was okay now. He was safe. 

Remus returned the gesture hesitantly. He really wasn’t good with hugs and the cutesy things, and here he was, getting hugged thrice in one day? That was completely new to him. He wasn’t sure if he liked it, either, but this… well, he didn’t mind this. 

“You should go to sleep, Virge,” he whispered softly, leaning his forehead against Virgil’s, who huffed softly. 

“I know,” he muttered. “I should, I just… don’t wanna be alone, I think. It’s dumb.”

Remus shook his head, pulling his head back slightly to look at the other. “It’s not,” he said. “I can stay for a little bit, you know?”

Virgil considered this for a while, before shaking his head, leaning his head against Remus’ chest once more. “You don’t have to,” he decided. “I don’t… wanna bother you, I guess. I’ll just sleep.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah. Don’t worry.”

Now, that was completely useless to say. Virgil was just fucking tortured, how was he not supposed to worry about that? Sure, he didn’t worry about a lot of people but this was fucking Virgil, of course he would fucking worry. 

“If you say so,” he said, deciding not to make too much of a fuss. Virgil needed his rest, and he would be right outside the door if the other did change his mind. “I’ll be in the living room for a while at least. And otherwise, there will be someone in the bedroom next doors. Just… knock if you feel like it, yeah?”

Virgil nodded, not looking at Crocodile. “Sure. Thanks.”

“Sleep well,” Remus said softly, kissing Virgil’s forehead slightly — a move that surprised both him and Virgil. He was never one for the sweet and cute gestures, but this just… felt right. There was something about Virgil that did some very,  _ very  _ weird things to him. And strangely enough, he didn’t mind. 

“Thanks,” the other hero said softly, smiling up at him. “You too.”

Remus almost didn’t want to leave. He wanted to be close to Virgil, to make sure that he was okay. To be there if he needed anything. He didn’t want Virgil to be alone. But he also didn’t want to push anything — normally he wouldn’t even begin to worry about that. He couldn’t care less about what people would think of him. But again, Virgil did weird things to him. Especially with what happened… Remus just didn’t want to hurt him. So, despite his own protests, Remus finally decided to leave Virgil alone. 

He waited until the other had gotten into bed, so he could turn off the lights before leaving. He cast one last look at the other, before he turned around and walked into the living area once more, closing the door behind him.

“I feel like we have some arrangements to discuss,” Remus said as he sat down on one of the chairs, looking at Janus and Patton. “There’s one more bedroom down here. There’s also two upstairs. I don’t think they know we’re here, so I can take one of the rooms upstairs. Dee can take the other one and Pat can stay down here, where it’s safer. In case something does happen.”

If he could choose, Remus would prefer to stay down here. Where he could keep an eye on Virgil. But he also knew that he and Janus were the most capable of taking care of themselves. So, if it turned out that the organisation tracked him down anyways, they could fight them off. It was the safest choice for all of them. Besides, he didn’t doubt that Patton would be anything less than understanding and sweet to Virgil. It all worked out.

“I think you should stay down here,” Janus corrected with a shake of his head. “Virgil trusts you. For some reason. So if he should, for whatever reason, need someone…” 

He didn’t finish his sentence, but the implications were clear. Virgil trusted Remus the most, so if he woke up in the middle of the night in a panic, he’d respond best to having Remus there. On top of that, Janus knew his friend enough to know that he wanted himself to be here as well. Even if he wouldn’t admit it. 

“I can take the couch,” Remus suggested with a shrug. He doubted he’d sleep much anyways. Sure, he was exhausted after the heist they pulled, but there was also too much going through his head right now. So much had happened tonight, and he wasn’t sure that he would be able to get a full night’s sleep. Patton was safer down here, so it would be the best choice to keep him down here, but the student shook his head. 

“I’ll stay upstairs,” he said with a kind smile. His eyes darted to the door to Virgil’s current bedroom and lingered for a second. He was worried sick about Virgil and he would do anything to make sure that the other was okay, but he also realised that he and Remus had grown quite close, so he felt like it would be better to let Remus take care of it, if anything happened. He could take care of himself. “You take care of him.”

“You sure?”

“I’ll manage, Re.”

Remus sighed, looking down with a shake of his head. “Sure,” he reluctantly concurred before giving Janus a stern look. “Be careful. Don’t do anything dumb, there’s no confirmation that we’re clear.”

Janus would have to know what he was doing. He had been in this business for a while, so he better be smart about this. If anything happened to him or Patton, Remus would probably lose it. So for all their sakes… Janus better be smart. 


	31. (Just Wanna) Bewitch You in the Moonlight

That night, Virgil woke up from a relatively dreamless sleep, his mind too exhausted to even think of dreaming. When he opened his eyes, however, he was met with almost complete darkness, given the fact that there were no windows in a bedroom underground. For a second, he started to panic. Despite the fact that he actually felt that he was in a bed, that he was not tied up in any way, his mind immediately went back to the interrogation room and he panicked. It felt as if, all of a sudden, all air had left the room. Like he was unable to breathe. He couldn’t… he had to get out of here. He needed some air. He needed to see a confirmation that he was, in fact, okay.

The hero jumped to his feet, getting himself tangled up in the blankets in the process, and stumbled to where he believed the door was. His hands brushed against the wall until he felt the smooth wood of the door, desperately searching until he finally got a hold of the doorknob, twisting it immediately. 

There were a few lights on in the living area, giving off enough lights to allow Virgil to see where he was going. That at least was a little bit of a relief, but… he still didn’t feel quite right. 

Remus was sat on the couch in the living room, glass of whiskey in his hand. He was lost in thought, but when the bedroom door opened, he immediately looked around, keeping a concerned eye on the younger man in the door opening. He looked bewildered and not in a great state as he walked towards the couch. 

“Virge,” Remus said softly, putting his glass down on the coffee table. “Are you… okay?”

Virgil shook his head, barely able to keep his own weight up yet too stubborn to admit to this. “I need some air,” he breathed, not even questioning why Remus would be awake at this time — whatever time it was . “I…”

Almost immediately, Remus got up and walked towards him, wrapping an arm around him to support him. It might be risky to go up right now, but… Virgil clearly needed it. Besides, Remus doubted that anyone would be waiting to ambush them. If the organisation had found them, they would have attacked by now. And Remus didn’t hear anything happening upstairs. 

“Sure,” he just nodded, starting to move in the direction of the staircase. “I could use some air, too.” 

The two of them walked up the stairs, Remus still helping Virgil. They quietly made their way to the front door and stepped outside. Virgil closed his eyes for a second, taking in the fresh forest air. It felt so good to be out here. His hands were trembling, his knees were barely able to keep him standing and his heart was pounding faster than he ever thought possible, but being here, outside, free, with Remus… that was nice. 

They remained quiet for a while as Virgil tried to calm himself down. He was fine. Nothing could happen to him here. Remus would make sure that nothing happened. He wasn’t alone in this. He just needed to breathe, relax, and… breathe. But he felt so trapped in here. Like the walls were closing in on him. 

“Can we take a walk?” Virgil asked softly, looking up at Remus, who just responded with a nod. 

“Of course,” he said. “Let’s go this way.”

They walked around the house, going deeper into the forest. It was dark, but not the suffocating kind of dark it had been back in that room. It was… comforting, almost. The vague light from the moon lit up patches of leaves on the ground, and everything was quiet except for the crunching of leaves beneath their feet. 

“You know,” Remus started after a little bit of comfortable quiet. “I never really got to thank you for saving my life back there. Again.”

Virgil smiled and nudged the other slightly. “It’s the least I could do, right?” he asked softly. “I mean… you saved my ass, too so… I had to do something to at least try and make up for it.”

“That just makes it sound like it was a burden on me,” Remus stated.

“Wasn’t it then?”

“Of course not!” Crocodile called out, as if Virgil had just made the biggest insult imaginable. “I get to kick some ass _and_ be the hero for once? How is that a burden?”

Virgil shrugged, not looking at the other. He just felt… dumb having to be saved. Or maybe that wasn’t even it, it was mostly… how helpless and useless he was yesterday. He couldn’t use his powers and he wasn’t in the right shape to help kick ass, as much as he wanted to. It just felt bad. He didn’t like that. 

“See? That’s what I mean,” Remus simply said at the lack of response. Virgil smiled slightly, but didn’t answer. He didn’t know what to say to this. After a brief silence between them, Remus turned to his friend again. “I’d save you every day of the week.”

After another brief silence, Virgil stopped, looking up at Remus slightly. “Re,” he said softly, taking a moment to figure out the best way to phrase his question without giving off the wrong impression. “Why are you like this?”

Remus frowned at the sudden question stopping as well to look at the other. “What do you mean?” he asked in confusion. 

“I mean… why are you so… soft?” Virgil asked him, struggling to find the right words. “You’re not usually like this.”

It wasn’t difficult to see that Remus wasn’t behaving like Virgil was used to. He was, to steal Virgil’s words, softer than he would normally act. And sure, to some extent, Virgil appreciated it. But he also felt like there was something called ‘overdoing it’. 

“I worry about you, Virgil.”

Virgil sighed, shaking his head a little. “I know, and I appreciate that, but… that’s not… _you_.”

This confused Remus even more. “What do you mean?” he asked. “My friend gets tortured and I can’t worry because ‘that’s not me’? What does that even mean?”

“Look…” Virgil stepped forwards, grabbing Remus’ hands in his. “You worry, and… I get that. I’m not saying that- I don’t know, that you shouldn’t, I guess. I’m just saying that… you’re uncharacteristically soft, and I _know_ that’s not you. If I have to point out anyone in this house, that’s Patton’s thing rather than yours. You don’t need to treat me like a porcelain doll, Re. I’m not going to break.”

“I know,” he said softly, taking the last step closer so the two of them were basically nose to nose. “But I can’t help it, Virge. I know Roman, and… I just want to be sure you’re okay. Maybe that’s uncharacteristic, but that’s because I care about you. Which is a first.”

“What about Janus?”

“Okay, I mean… I care about him, too, I guess,” Remus admitted. “But it’s not the same. I like you, okay? You do weird shit to me, Virge. Everything I do around you is uncharacteristic.”

Virgil smiled, leaning his forehead against Remus’ chest, finding comfort in the rise and fall of his chest. Despite everything, he really fucking loved him. If you’d told him a few months ago that he’d find himself in this position with the fucking Crocodile, he would have called you insane. If you’d told him how he would feel about the Crocodile, he would have called it a lie. But now… he wouldn’t have it any other way. 

“You’re an idiot,” he muttered softly. 

“Only because of you.”

Alibi chuckled softly, looking up. He locked eyes with Remus and smiled. Before Virgil even realised what was happening, he leaned forwards a little, bringing his head up. His lips softly brushed against Remus’. He didn’t know why he was doing this, but it just… felt good. It felt like the right thing to do. Their lips met gently and Virgil smiled into the kiss. Remus let go of one of Virgil’s hands, cupping his cheek. 

When they broke the kiss, the two of them were quiet for a little bit, just enjoying the moment with their foreheads still pressed together. Enjoying each other’s company and the silence around them. But eventually, Virgil felt a slight shiver running down his back and he realised that he was starting to get cold. He had no idea how long they’d been out here, but he reasoned that it would be long enough. 

“I think we should go back,” he said softly, pulling away. 

Remus nodded. “Of course.” He straightened his back, keeping one of Virgil’s hands in his. “Right this way.”

Virgil smiled at him and followed him in the direction of the house. As they walked, his mind started to wander. Sooner or later, he’d have to go home. He couldn’t stay here forever. But home… he didn’t feel like he would be safe there. Remy had told the organisation where he lived. The last time he was at home, Red Bandit, Barrier and Dynamo broke down his door as they fucking kidnapped him. So of course, he didn’t feel safe going back to a place where his greatest enemies knew to find him. Especially now, after Caesar’s death. After escaping. They wouldn’t be happy with him. 

“You’re awfully quiet,” Remus stated, lowering his voice slightly as they stepped back into the house. “What’s on your mind?”

Virgil looked up at him, taking a deep breath. He barely knew what was going on himself. His mind was everywhere and nowhere, and he felt like he had no control over it anymore. 

“I... “ He shook his head, deciding to start the sentence over. “Do you think I could… stay here for a little while? I don’t think I feel safe staying at home.”

“Of course,” the other nodded immediately, not even giving it a second thought. “I’m almost offended you think I’d even let you go back there after everything that happened.”

The two of them walked in the direction of the hidden door, Remus opening it again to let Virgil in first. It was strange to see how concerned Remus was about him, and how much he cared. Virgil would never have guessed that this was the person behind the Crocodile’s mask. 

He stifled a yawn as he stopped at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for Remus to return after closing the hidden door. He was actually starting to get tired again, and he really wanted to go to sleep. But honestly… he didn’t want to sleep alone. He didn’t trust himself with that. He wondered if it would be weird to ask…

“Remus?” Virgil asked softly as the other walked down the stairs. His question was answered with a soft hum, signalling to him to continue. “Can you… I’m not sure I wanna be alone right now. Do you think it would be okay if you’d… stay with me tonight?”

“But of course,” Remus said, without even a second of hesitation. “If that’s what you want…”

“As long as it’s okay with you.”

“I’d take that as a yes, then.” He smiled and grabbed Virgil’s hand again. “You sure you don’t want anything else?”

Virgil nodded, leaning into the other slightly. “Sure,” he confirmed. “I just wanna sleep right now.”

Remus smiled. “That can be arranged.”

The duo walked over to the bedroom again, Virgil heading over to the bed to turn on the small light on the nightstand so Remus could turn off the main lights. 

“Would it be okay to leave this one on?” the hero asked timidly, looking at the other. “I… I don’t like the dark too much right now.”

“Of course.” Remus sat down on the bed, giving Virgil a reassuring smile. “Anything that’ll make you feel better.”

The two of them laid down and Virgil subconsciously scooted closer to the other, wrapping an arm around his waist. “Is this okay?”

“Of course.” Remus wrapped his arm around Virgil in return, kissing his forehead.

Virgil smiled as he closed his eyes and leaned into Remus a bit more. He usually wasn’t someone to be a huge fan of touch, but in this current situation — and with Remus — he really didn’t mind. In fact, it was a huge comfort to him. Just to know that there was someone there. That he wasn’t alone. If something happened, there would be someone there. 

“Good,” he whispered, already half asleep. “Sleep well.”


	32. Hide Your Head in the Sand

When Virgil woke up the next morning, he was disoriented. It took him a few moments to realise where he was and why Remus was next to him with an arm wrapped around his waist. He sighed and tried to relax into the soft mattress. It was certainly a nice change from the uncomfortable chair he’d been confined to for the past week, that was sure.

His eyes landed on Remus, lingering for a moment. He was still sleeping, looking more peaceful than Virgil had ever seen him. In fact, Virgil wasn’t sure he’d  _ ever _ been peaceful to begin with. Remus was usually on edge, always in motion and watching his back. He always had a thousand plans and in the back of his mind, he was always prepared to defend himself in case of a surprise attack. But right now… he was actually  _ relaxed _ . Virgil found that he could really get used to this.

There was still a voice of panic in the back of his head and a sense of fear in his heartbeat, but knowing that Remus was there helped calm them down at least a little. He knew that Remus would protect him. Remus would never let anything hurt him.

Even though he couldn’t quite go back to sleep, Virgil stayed in bed. He closed his eyes, because the shadows on the wall unsettled him. He closed his eyes and leaned into Remus, finding comfort in the rise and fall of his chest and the rhythm in his breaths. 

After a while, Virgil couldn’t even begin to tell you exactly how long, Remus started to stir. His breathing changed ever so slightly and he started to move, albeit only a tiny little bit. It was just enough for Virgil to take notice. He opened his eyes slightly to look at the other as he blinked his eyes open with the softest little squeak, a grin appearing as soon as he saw Virgil. 

“Well, good morning to you, handsome,” he smiled, his voice cracking slightly with sleep. “This has got to be one of the best ways I’ve woken up in a long, long time.”

Virgil chuckled, pushing himself up with one elbow. “How’d you sleep?”

Remus grabbed one of Virgil’s hands and kissed the back of it, in a complete un-Remus-like gesture. “Like a dream,” he muttered, smiling up at the other. “How about you?” Worry flooded his eyes as he studied Virgil closely. 

“Alright,” he said softly, “better with you here.”

His sleep hadn’t been stellar, but at least it was better than it had been when he was all by himself. Knowing there was someone to protect him made everything so much better. 

“I’m glad to be of service,” Remus said, his trademark grin finding its way to his lips as he pushed himself up as well so he could be at Virgil’s level. “I’m gonna go upstairs. Grab some food and all that crap. You coming?”

Virgil bit his lip as he looked at the other. “I’ll be up with you in a bit,” he finally answered. “You go ahead.”

“You’ll be okay?” 

“I will,” he promised, rubbing the back of Remus’ hand with his thumb. “I just… need a moment.”

After a moment of deliberation, Remus nodded. “Very well,” he decided. “I’ll get you something to eat when you do come up.”

He remained where he was for a second, gazing into Virgil’s eyes with a smile before he pushed himself up. There was a part of Virgil that didn’t even want to eat anything right now. It just didn’t sound appealing to him. But he knew that he had to. And he also knew Remus wouldn’t let him say no. So he just responded with a soft hum and let himself fall back onto the mattress as Remus chuckled and left, leaving the door slightly ajar. 

Virgil fell back on the bed, squeezing his eyes shut as he pressed his head into the pillow. His mind was racing and no matter what he tried, it wouldn’t stop. He wished it could shut up for once, but he was a total mess. After everything that had happened in the past few months… there really was a lot for him to deal with and none of it was something he  _ actually  _ wanted to deal with. It was difficult to process… all of this. He just needed a bit of time. 

But not too much, though. Virgil knew that it would drive him crazy if he stayed here on his own for too long. Being alone with himself for too long was never good under normal circumstances. But now… that was even worse. The comfort of the bed and the warmth of the sheet were so welcome, especially after being confined to a chair for a week, and he didn’t want to get up. But he knew he had to get up at some point. He even  _ wanted _ to get up and move. Again, after having been tied to a chair and hardly getting more movement than walking to a lousy bathroom and back once a day… he could do with a little bit of exercise. Or at least movement. But he couldn’t find it in himself to  _ get up. _

Virgil pulled the blanket over his head with a soft groan and stayed there until it became too uncomfortable and he threw the blanket back. He was immediately less comfortable in the bed, but he needed to get out anyways so maybe it wasn’t all that bad, right?

It took him a few more minutes to actually drag himself out of the bed and walk out of the bedroom. It was odd how dark it was down here. Obviously, it made sense, as this was a basement, but it was still weird. It had to be at least somewhere in the morning, so there had to be some light, yet it was dark as if it was the middle of the night. A little bit of light entered the room from the door at the top of the stairs, which Remus had left open for Virgil’s comfort. He would be upstairs no matter what, so even if some of Roman’s goons came after them, he would be there to protect Virgil. 

With just a little bit of effort, Virgil managed to get up the stairs — he hated how much effort this took him and how off balance he was. But he made it. 

As he stepped into the main living space, Virgil smelled food and he wasn’t sure if it was alluring or if it made him nauseous, but it didn’t smell horrible by any means. His eyes were drawn towards Remus, sat in the window sill with — of course — a cigarette in his hand. He was looking at something outside, appearing strangely serene for his standards. As soon as Virgil stepped inside, he whipped his head up, smiling broadly as he saw the other. 

“Fancy seeing you here,” Remus smirked, breathing out a few small puffs of smoke as he spoke. “Feel good?”

“Good enough,” Virgil murmured in response as he got a chair from the living area to pull closer to Remus. He felt as good as the circumstances would allow, so… that was something. 

“Good, good.” Remus took a drag of his cigarette and blew the smoke outside through the open window. He got up, his cigarette still in his mouth. “I made you some food,” he spoke around his cigarette as he made his way over to the kitchen part of the room. “Vegetable soup, it’s light and full of lovely vitamins, which you’re gonna need. Because I don’t think you’ve been eating a lot, huh?”

“Not really,” Virgil mumbled as he followed Remus with his head. “You sure that’s good?”

“Sweetheart, this is hardly my first rodeo,” the other said with a soft hum as he grabbed a bowl and filled it about halfway with the soup, filled a glass with water and brought those two to Virgil. “I know a lot about things you might not want to know about. Sort of comes with the job.” As soon as his hands were free, Remus grabbed his cigarette between his middle and index fingers, sitting down in the windowsill once more. “And don’t worry about finishing it all, it’s okay if you don’t.”

Virgil nodded and grabbed the spoon as he placed the glass on the floor next to him. He was not surprised that Remus would know about these odd subjects and while he was content never hearing about them ever again, part of him was curious just how much Remus  _ really _ knew. For now, it seemed better to be ignorant about that, though. 

He stirred the soup with his spoon for a while before he actually got some of it on his spoon and ate it. The taste was salty but rather welcome nonetheless. He wasn’t aware that soup could ever taste as good as it did. It was the near-starvation, he was sure. Unless Remus was an exceptional cook, but Virgil wasn’t sure about that. No offense to Remus, he just didn’t seem like the type of person to really spend much effort on cooking anything.

Virgil ate a small bit, very much aware of Remus watching him worriedly as he smoked his cigarette. The two of them remained silent, but it wasn’t an unpleasant silence. Virgil needed a bit of time, some peace and quiet and Remus being there helped ease his mind a little bit. Remus understood. Just one look at the other told him everything he needed to know. He was no Janus, but he had gotten good at reading body language. Virgil especially. They seemed to understand each other at a level that neither of them had previously experienced. As if they’d known each other all their lives instead of just a couple months. 

“So… what are we gonna do next?” Virgil asked, finally breaking the silence. “About… the organisation, I mean? They’re gonna be looking for us.”

Remus nodded, extinguishing the cigarette in the palm of his hand. “I… had a plan about that,” he said, turning to Virgil. “I have a new bank account, put some money on there over the past months. I was gonna skip town. Move away, go off the radar. You should come with me.”

“What?” Virgil blinked, overwhelmed by the sudden request. As lovely as it sounded… It was a big move. And he wasn’t sure if he could leave the city behind. The organisation was still at large. He couldn’t move away with that knowledge. He knew that he wasn’t the only hero in this town, but it felt like it was his responsibility to take care of all of this. 

“I mean… it sounds amazing, it really does,” he started, making Remus raise his eyebrow. 

“But…?”

“I’m not sure if I can leave like that,” he said with an unsure shake of his head. “I can’t leave the city like that. Not with all those villains still around here.” 

Remus hummed softly, shifting his position to rest his feet on the floor as he looked at the other. “With all due respect, where the fuck do you want to go?” he asked, leaning his elbows on his knees. “They know your name. They know where you live. They know where you work. There’s not much about you that they  _ don’t  _ know at this point. So where do you want to go that they won’t find you? Why do you think I have so many houses? They’re smart. They have people  _ everywhere _ , Virge. I don’t want anything happening to you. Especially if I’m not here to help you out. They’re gonna be pissed about Caesar, so…”

He had a point. Virgil didn’t want to admit it, but Remus had a point. Remy was part of the gang and they knew pretty much everything about him. And what they knew… the gang would know. His entire life was out now. He couldn’t go anywhere in this town. As much as he hated to say it, he couldn’t stay. 

This city was so important to him. He’d moved here to study, and he never left. He was never one to enjoy the big city, but there was something about this place that made it so much better. That made it feel like he belonged here, somehow. And in all honesty, he didn’t want to leave. But no matter how much he did to take precautions, the organisation would find him. He knew that. Maybe, he’d be able to stay out of their claws for a few weeks. Even a few months, if he was lucky. But it wouldn’t last. They’d always find him here. 

And besides, moving in with Remus… that couldn’t be so bad, could it? 

Yeah, maybe it was for the best that he moved away.

“You’re right,” Virgil sighed, realising how his reluctance might come across to Remus. ”And don’t get me wrong, I would love to move with you, that sounds incredible. It’s just… hard.”

“I get it.” Remus grabbed Virgil’s hand. “It’s not easy. But it’s the best for you. You don’t have to, really. I’m just trying to look out for you.”

Virgil smiled, rubbing his thumb over the back of Remus’ hand. “I know,” he nodded. “I’m glad you do, really. I’d love to move. Where would we go?”

Remus shrugged, giving the other a slight grin. “Who knows?” he questioned. “I’ve got places anywhere. New York City, Chicago, Washington. And some more rural places, like Vermont, Wisconsin. Alaska, even.”

“How do you have so many places?” Virgil asked in surprise. “And why?”

“What can I say? Crime pays,” Remus responded simply. After all, he was one of the most important people in a big criminal organisation. That paid well. But don’t take his word as a motivation to do crime, please. “And why? Well… I have backup plans. It’s always good to be prepared, just in case some nutcase is trying to kill you.”

Virgil nodded. That made sense; not a lot he could say to that. 

“I can even buy a new place if you don’t like anything I have right now.”

Virgil brought the spoon to his lips again, taking a moment as he ate some of the soup. There were so many questions racing through his head right now. So many factors and insecurities. 

“And what about Patton?” he asked softly, setting the bowl down next to him to grab the glass of water instead. “Or Janus? They’re in danger as well.”

“Far ahead of you there, my sweet thunderbird,” Remus said as he leaned back against the window. Of course he had thought about them. He considered both Patton and Janus his friends as well — something he was careful to say, since he never let people come so close that he could call them anything more than acquaintances or people he worked with — and he wouldn’t let any harm get to them if he could stop it. “I’ll ask them to come with me- us, if you say yes. Obviously.”

Virgil nodded as he sipped his water. At least that was a reassurance. He didn’t think that Remus would purposely put them in danger, but actually  _ knowing  _ Remus’ plans was good. It gave him a little bit of security. At least there would be that. Janus would probably agree to come; Virgil didn’t think he had much tying him to this city anymore. But Patton… that would be something else entirely. He studied here, he had friends here, his life was here. It would be a hard choice for him, for sure. And if he decided to stay, someone would need to watch his back. 

“I think I’ll wait to see what Patton has to say,” the hero finally decided. “I would love to move with you, more than anything, but… if Patton decides to stay here, he’ll need someone to keep an eye on him.” 

“Of course,” Remus said with the slightest smile. He reached out to grab Virgil’s free hand carefully. “Take your time. We’re not leaving straight away, so you can still think.”

“I don’t think we’re leaving straight anything,” Virgil muttered, hiding his small smile by taking a sip of his water. 

Remus chuckled fondly at the joke and gave the other a broad smile. He loved Virgil so much, it was impossible to describe. There were no words that would do justice. Just a few months ago, he would have thought it was impossible for him to feel this way about anyone. And here he was, completely infatuated with the man who used to be his enemy. Life was a strange thing, but Remus would be lying if he said he’d ever want it any other way.

It was a little while before both Patton and Janus came downstairs, since it had been before seven that Virgil and Remus woke up. Janus was the first to come downstairs, a little past eight. Patton followed at nine. By this time, Virgil and Remus had moved to the living space, both sitting on a couch. Virgil had his legs swung over Remus’ and leaned his head against his shoulder and Remus had his arm wrapped around Virgil’s waist as he and Janus talked about the organisation. 

Patton smiled as he saw this and joined his sort-of-friends in the living area, occupying an armchair. He leaned forwards a bit so he could talk to Virgil without having to scream over the chatter of the other two too much. 

“How are you?” he asked, eyeing the other with worry. He looked better than yesterday, definitely. Better rested, anyways. But he still looked like shit — understandably so, of course. Getting tortured for a week wasn’t nothing. But at least it was ‘only’ a week right? He knew from Remus that things could have gotten much worse if he hadn’t come in to get Virgil out of there. So… at least it didn’t come to that. 

“Fine,” Virgil said with a small shrug. He truly didn’t know what to say. Saying he was fine wasn’t the full truth, but he wasn’t going to talk about how everything hurt and he was so goddamn tired and he just wanted to sleep but he didn’t want to be alone in the dark. He wasn’t going to expand on everything going through his head and how he felt like he could literally  _ feel _ Dynamo’s energy underneath his skin if he touched his wrists together. Relatively, though? He was fine. Better than yesterday at least, and that was something. “Or at least… better.”

Patton managed a small smile as he locked eyes with the hero. “I’m glad,” he nodded. “If you need anything…”

“I’m fine, thank you,” Alibi responded, returning the smile weakly. “I think Re has most of it covered. He barely lets me out of his sight.”

The student chuckled as his eyes darted over to Remus, who had definitely heard the mention of his name, but chose to listen to what Janus was telling him about something to do with Red Bandit instead. He honestly wasn’t surprised at that. Even if he didn’t want to show it too much, it was so clear to him that Remus simply adored Virgil. In a way that he hadn’t thought possible from one of the most feared assassins in the state — maybe even more. 

“You know, he was worried sick about you,” Patton commented casually as he pulled his legs up on the chair. “I mean- obviously he was, we both were but he was…” He trailed off, trying to find the way to describe it properly. If he hadn’t known before, Remus’ stress at Virgil being captured was what actually tipped Patton off to how much Remus actually loved the other hero. It was adorable. And Patton never thought he’d say that about the Crocodile. 

“It’s not nice to gossip, Pat,” Remus chimed in slyly, clearly having ended the conversation with Janus. “Though, I suppose you wouldn’t know anything about that. After all, if you would, you wouldn’t even have gotten yourself in this situation.”

Patton laughed at this, shaking his head at Remus with a grin. “Without my help,  _ you _ wouldn’t be in this situation either,” he shot back cheekily. 

Remus opened his mouth to respond, but he had to admit that he couldn’t think of a comeback for that one. Mostly because he couldn’t stop thinking about how Patton was right and if Patton hadn’t helped him out, he might not have met Virgil and he might not have been in this situation right now and he didn’t even want to  _ think  _ about how his life would have turned out if that was the case. 

“I have to give you that one,” he admitted reluctantly, as his eyes travelled to Virgil. “Shall we ask them  _ the question _ ?” 

“What question?” Janus asked with a frown as Virgil nodded in confirmation. 

“Luckily for you, dear Mister J, I’m just about to ask you that question,” Remus said with a wiggle of his eyebrows. “Unless you wanna do the honours?” He looked down at Virgil instead. 

The hero shook his head. “Nah, you go ahead,” he murmured, leaning against the other just a little bit more, for once, craving their proximity. He never was one to enjoy closeness so much, but something about this situation and something about Remus just made it…  _ better _ . “You’re so good at it.”

Remus chuckled and nodded. “Very well,” he nodded, turning to the two others again as he explained the situation that got him thinking. “So,” he said as he finished his explanation. “The point is: I’m moving away. Virgil might. What do you have to say? Wanna join me?”

“Sure.” Janus’ response was almost immediate, as he didn’t even have to consider it. There was nothing left for him in the city. His job was… well… gone. And while he knew people in the organisation, and talked to a lot of people, they weren’t enough to make him stay. He couldn’t even talk to most of them without being shot. Remus was one of the few people he liked, so… of course he would join. 

It did take a little bit of time for Patton to respond, as expected. He had by far the most to lose here. His friends and his study were here, and if they had to lay low, contacting family would be difficult as well. It could be done, Remus had prepared for a moment like this for a while and he knew exactly what to do. But it still wasn’t easy. 

“I don’t think I have a choice,” the student finally said. It was clear that this was a difficult choice for him to make, but he also knew that staying here would endanger not only himself, but also his friends. And he didn’t want to be the one to endanger them. He would never forgive himself. “It’s either that or…” He didn’t finish his sentence, biting his lip. “Yeah… I’ll join.”

“Glad to see you so enthusiastic,” Remus teased the student before he looked down at the man in his arms. “So does that mean you’ll join us too?”

Virgil nodded. If Patton joined them… he really didn’t have much reason to stay. He didn’t have any friends or family left in the city and his job was one he could pick up anywhere. Leaving the city still felt bad. He still felt responsible for keeping the people safe, but he knew that staying would mean his death. The organisation would be after him, and with his identity out in the open, nowhere would be safe for him. Sooner or later, they’d find him. So in that case… he’d rather be with Remus. 

“Yeah,” he said with another nod. “I’ll come along.”


	33. www.heroic-crimefighting-updates.com

_ Hey guys! _

_ I have a bit of an announcement to make here. You might have noticed my absence here lately, and I have a very good reason for that. I can’t share details, or… I don’t want to, for safety’s sake, but I have been kind out of the loop with the news lately. I haven’t had much contact with anyone to be fair. And I’m afraid I’m gonna be out of the loop for a while longer.  _

_ I have decided that, due to recent events, it’s no longer safe for me to stay in the city. Not right now, at least. There might be a time when it’s safe again, but right now… it definitely is not. So, I’m moving away. It’s been a very difficult decision for me to make, but it’s the only decision. Like I said; the city isn’t safe for me anymore. It’s… hard to say, but that’s the truth.  _

_ So… this is my last post here. I want to thank every one of you for reading this blog. Whether you were one of my first followers, or you found it yesterday… thank you. You were a big part in what made writing this blog so much fun. It was just supposed to be a short, temporary project for uni. But it turned into so much more. I would want to say that you can follow the instagram I made, under the same name as the blog, and you still can but… I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to update it. Again… safety.  _

_ Don’t worry, though, this blog won’t cease to exist. One of my very good friends, who will remain anonymous for now (for safety reasons, once again), will take over this blog for me. He’s been a big support to me while writing this blog and I know that he will do amazing taking over this job.  _

_ Thank you guys so much. For all your messages, your questions, your attention. It’s so difficult for me to leave this blog, but it’s the only thing I can do at this moment. I’m gonna miss all of you, so much. Again… thank you. You’ve made this experience truly unforgettable. _

_ As always, thank you guys so much for reading this, as well as all my previous blog posts! Writing this blog has been a blast, and I never imagined it would become as big as it did. Remember that I love you all very very much, and hopefully, until the next time <3 _

_ \- Patton H. _


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